Galbatorix's Daughter
by MenacingFlower
Summary: What if Galbatorix had a daughter but she was in our world until she turned 16. How would this affect Eragon and his future? Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters in this story. okay, I own some of them, but not all of them.
1. Chapter 1

Slowly I gained consciousness, registering everything and forcing my brain out of the wonderful hibernation that is sleep.

Sleep, I thought, what a wonderful place, maybe I'll just go back there...

"Catie get out of bed NOW!!!! It's twelve o'clock and I don't care if it's your birthday, you are going to get out of bed this instant and you are going to get ready because your family is going to be here in one hour!!!" Gee, thanks for yelling at me from the bottom of the stairs mom. Then again, that's the better option. I shuddered thinking of her coming up the stairs to yell at me. With the cold water and the brutal tearing the covers off in the middle of February. That would so not be fun.

Sighing, I forced myself out of bed, down the hall, and into the shower. It felt good enough, like sleep. Too bad I had to get out. I dried my hair until it was flat, dry, and normal in all of its annoying in-between-blonde-and-browness. I mean really? Is it so hard to pick one color? Stupid hair. My pale blue eyes understood the concept. No green in them, or brown, or violet, or yellow, just blue. Why couldn't hair be that cooperative?

Okay, so it wasn't really the hair's fault I told myself as I threw on my favorite pair of jeans and a navy blue t-shirt. Eyeliner, mascara, and then the doorbell. Great.

It wasn't that I didn't like my family, it was just that they were so... okay, let me describe it. Or try. Words usually fail me on this subject. My mother is psychotic and I swear she's bipolar, my dad is a total nerd with all his technology crap, and my brother is the annoying sociopathic loser who always knows just how to annoy me until I all but bite his head off, when my mother becomes her crazy self and gets really mad. And that's just the immediate family. My Aunt Cate is all goody-goody. Like, to the point where she gives you the 'OMG your a horrible person' look if you say the word 'stupid'. I swear she has a copyright on that look. Her husband, my Uncle Brian, once told me he should "rip my nose off". Enough said. Then there's their daughter Meaghan, who sings the most random songs. They're, like, about couches, or rugs, or her veggies. I mean really. I wouldn't mind except she gets really mad if you don't fall all over yourself to praise her for it, which could potentially result in the loss of your natural hair color. Her older sister Grace is crazy obsessed with her boyfriend who, lucky me, lives one neighborhood away. He's an obnoxious jerk who throws gum at people. Not... that that's ever... happened to me before. Aunt Ally is pretty cool. She makes jewelry and stuff and Uncle Jimmy is pretty awesome. Their kids, however, are a different story. Arden is pretty obnoxious as far as little kids go and cries about everything and Porter just randomly bites people. The rest of the family is okay I guess.

I walked downstairs and got the door open about as slowly as humanly possible.

"Hey Grace! Aunt Cate! Uncle Brian! Meaghan!" Wow, I was really surprised that they didn't hear the lack of sincerity in my words.

"Hey! Happy Birthday!" They all stated in some crazy pre-programmed voice, like robots, with all this emotion, yes, but exactly the same each and every time.

Grace was last and she looked super excited, though it wasn't because she was happy for me. She just couldn't wait to see her boyfriend at the park later.

So when everyone else arrived, I came up with the wonderful idea that Grace and I should take Arden and Porter to the playground. Of course everyone agreed.

Sam, the loser boyfriend, was already there and he and Grace went off to do whatever it is thirteen year olds do while I played with my littler cousins for about an hour.

Then, thankfully, my mom called and said it was cake time. Yay for cake!

So we all went back to my house, much to Grace's dismay, and, low and behold, I got more gum thrown at me for being the messenger. We got back, ate the cake, I opened presents, which included money and a cruise, I said thank you, everyone left, I watched The Phantom of the Opera, and went to bed.

I had a wonderful dream in which Sam got eaten by a dragon and my cat viscously attacked my brother. Yes, violent, but it was more one of those weird dreams where its kind of fuzzy and you don't actually see it, you just know it happens.

But then the dream, and the wonderful sleep started to fade and I groggily opened my eyes. Then I snapped bolt upright.

This wasn't my room. My room was sky blue, not stone. There were books everywhere and I definitely didn't have any paintings in my room. This room had no books, though there was a major dragon theme going on here. Even though there was only a small candle burning on a little side table, I could make out some things. There was a deep red rug on the floor, richly embroidered with a gold dragon, a dragon statue with ruby red eyes, and various other paintings and figurines, all about dragons. The only thing that wasn't of dragons was a large painting dominating the south wall. It was of a beautiful woman with long black hair, high cheekbones, and amazing, slanted blue eyes. She had pointed ears which, surprisingly, only added to her exotic beauty and in her delicate hand she held a rose. Her knowing eyes stared out of the window that definitely belonged in the room.

But this was nothing next to the imposing man that sat in the chair directly under the painting, staring straight at me with almost a father-like look on his face. Well, it would have been if not for the twisted cruelty that had already taken residence there.


	2. Chapter 2

The man regarded me for a minute and then spoke in a voice that sent chills down my spine, despite the fact that it was probably his warmest tone.

"Her name was Renea" He glanced back at the portrait of the woman, pointing with his eyes," She was your mother-"

I couldn't help but giggle, which probably wasn't the best reaction to the crazy man sitting in the corner of the room that definitely was not mine. Gut reaction, I guess. Maybe nervous energy, cause no person in their right mind would laugh at a guy that scary. So I tried to fix it by muttering " Sorry" under my breath.

A second later, I could have sworn the man allowed a smile, but it was impossible to tell. His face looked contorted, like something was causing him immense pain. It almost resembled a person having their hand chopped of. The only real semblance of a smile present was something no one would be able to put their finger on. Possibly the lack of growling, screaming, and cursing that would normally accompany such faces as the one plastered on this man's face. Either way, I was almost seventy-five percent sure that it was supposed to be a smile, whether or not he was particularly good at that facial expression.

"Anyway," He continued "As I was saying, she was proud, beautiful, and the love of my life-"

Another uncalled for giggle, another odd face from crazy man.

"Anyway, we had a daughter, but we were in the middle of a war here, and we didn't want the baby girl, Katari, to get involved. So we sent her away with magic, to be returned to us when she was sixteen." He looked at me expectantly for a response.

I couldn't help it. I really did try, but, come on, can you really expect someone not to burst out laughing after that little speech? Well, I did anyway, and when I got over it I managed to choke out " So, let me get this straight, excluding the crazy magic talk, you expect me to believe that I'm your daughter and I'm in... where exactly am I supposedly?"

"Alagaesia"

"Right. Okay then, so I'm in 'Alagaesia', and I came here- and left here -by magic. Which doesn't exist. Therefore, I have now come to the conclusion that I am, for some inexplicable reason, in an insane asylum, and you..." I gestured for him to give me a name.

" King Galbatorix"

" Okay then, King Galbatorix, are a mental patient who's doctor accidentally forgot to make your straight jacket tight enough, so you wandered in here. I'm not sure why I'm here, or what's with the decor, however, I am pretty sure that this is crazyland."

"I'm sorry you don't believe me. You are free to go where you please anyway, so enjoy yourself.", He stood up, "And now I have business to attend to" With that he left the room.

I must admit I was both surprised and proud of myself. Proud that I hadn't freaked out and totally deserved the fact that I was in an asylum, and surprised for the same reason. Then again, I now reasoned with myself, it was probably just because I was the type of person to just accept things as reality. I had never really been one to question whether something was there, so deep down I kind of believed what the guy had said. At least part of it. I knew who I was and there was nothing that guy could say to convince me otherwise. The magic bit was a little iffy, but hey, if someone could prove it, I'd accept it, because there had always been things that could never be explained, which actually bothered me because I was a very logical person. Even so, I tended to accept most things at face value, because it just made sense to me, so I would just have to walk around and check the place out. There was no harm in it. If he was not crazy and had been telling the truth, then I should probably know more about the place. If I was right, then I really needed to know who was the idiot that let that guy out of his padded cell and more importantly why I was here. Any way I looked at it, I still had to move.

I looked at myself in a little hand mirror and decided the shorts-and-t-shirt combo I was in just wouldn't cut it. On top of that my hair was a disaster and I really hoped they had eyeliner or something.

I glanced around the room, seeing a large door on the east wall. Upon opening it, I discovered a vast array of clothes. Well, gowns was a more accurate term. I dug through and found the plainest one, if it could actually be called that. It was pale blue and flowing, like you would picture a medieval dress, except the sleeves weren't all that huge. It was awful and took me a full hour to figure out how to get on, but it fit perfectly.

I brushed my hair, which had inexplicably turned jet black against my pale skin, and walked out of the room. And the further I walked, the more I believed King Crazy. It was amazing. A castle right out of old England. There were the people in the funny outfits everywhere, walking and laughing, some looking really mean and war-like, though none of them matched the menace in King Crazy's face. These guys looked like they might possibly still be able to manage a smile.

After awhile I found what looked like a library, which was pretty unorganized compared to those that I was used to. There was obviously a system to it, I just couldn't figure out more than by language. There were three different sets of shelves. I found one other thing after looking at the books for awhile; on the top shelf of each set, except for the one with the english books, had a set of dictionaries. The first language that was nothing I recognized, but it was more coarse in nature than the second one that I didn't understand, had a set of eight extremely thick dictionaries. The more flowing language, at least on paper, had seventeen of the books.

I also found, in english, a bunch of books on history. I decided that I would borrow one of them to learn more about the place that I had randomly been stuck in. This went way beyond a joke. The detail and money it would take to pull this off would be more than ten major Hollywood movies. Therefore, this must be reality, and I would accept that because it did no good to be in denial. Nothing would ever get done. It's like when people won't accept that there is an oil problem because, oh, look, we are running out! But they don't do anything about it and keep messing up the environment more and more instead of putting all that money into finding a brand new energy source. So I would just accept things for what they were and deal with it as best I could.

I grabbed the book and went back to my room. I was hungry, sure, but I needed to learn some things first.


	3. Chapter 3

The book was odd to say the least. It went on and on about elves and dwarves and dragons with riders. It had urgals and power struggles and basically sounded like an over the top fiction novel. It was one of those things like a myth. They start in truths and actual history but they get warped as people pass them down by word of mouth until they get totally outrageous and then someone decides that it's a good idea to write it down.

It was really good though. I was slightly biased since I love to read in general, but the story was interesting. The writer talked about how creatures called elves had come to Alagaesia and fought a war with dragons. It would have killed both races, because the elves were powerful spellcasters (I had no idea what this meant. Maybe that was what they called doctors or something.) and the dragons were just strong in general. They had the same intelligence as the elves, which was far more than humans, except they had a ferocity that was unparalleled. The elves were rash and strong, faster and more adept than humans. They were graceful, the fair-folk as they were called. The dragons had another advantage though; they could breathe fire. To stop the genocide, a kind of pact was formed when a young elf named Eragon found a white dragon egg. He became the first rider when the elf queen formed a blood pact with the dragons to prevent the destruction of the two races. The riders were elves who touched eggs bound by magic not to hatch until their destined rider touched them. The eggs hatched for their particular elf, and the two were bound to one another. They had a mental bond and they gained many benefits, though the elves gained the bulk. The dragons' viscous nature was slightly tamed and the elves gained more refined and beautiful features, immortality, and host of other changes. The riders also had the strength of ten elves each. They formed their own group, separate from any governing body and kept the peace between dwarves, elves, humans when they came, and urgals when they followed. The humans were eventually added to the pact and everyone was at peace until about one hundred years ago there was a great war. Nothing was really recorded about it except that the riders and dragons had been basically exterminated and the elves were holed up in Du Weldenvarden, a forest somewhere. The dwarves too had holed themselves up in their mountains and tunnels. And that was where the history ended.

I was surprised that I had managed that in one sitting. I was used to reading books without getting up until I was done, but this was the size of maybe three. Adding to that, I was tired, hungry since it had probably been another day after getting up and I hadn't eaten at all, and some parts of that book were more boring to read than watching a documentary on cheese.

I would definitely need to eat. Time to find the kitchen which I had considered so trivial twenty-four-hours-and-a-giant-book ago. The library had been far more fascinating, though. At the time. Now, it seemed kind of dumb that I had opted for the books. No, books are always better.

Feeling that I should probably change my clothes, I found a slightly more elaborate dress that was a pretty sage color with some gold trim. A lot of these dresses had gold trim, I realized, really looking for the first time. I braided my hair which took longer than I had intended and probably looked really bad.

So, mildly happy with my appearance, I decided to go eat, hoping that the place where people ate in giant castle wouldn't be too hard to find.


	4. Chapter 4

Finding the kitchen was, to my great dismay, a challenge. I searched for at least three hours with my stomach very unhappy with me for skipping two breakfasts, a lunch, and a dinner. I was just about to give up when a voice behind me made me jump at least ten feet in the air.

"Having trouble?" King Crazy's voice-that-had-no-emotion-but-was-trying-to-simulate-it came from maybe four feet away.

I whipped around to face him and found that he was not alone. There were three men in somewhat gaudy clothes and a woman who had a more elegant and refined style with him. One man had a nose that greatly resembled an oversized tomato, with brown hair. He was short and stout and had on an icky puke green colored outfit. The second man was an inch or so shorter than me and his mousy brown hair was gross and greasy. The last was tall and almost as regal as the king, and King Crazy didn't leave him far behind in the fierceness category. He looked a lot like a hawk mixed with a very, very angry snake with whoever he happened to be looking at as his intended prey. His hair was streaked with gray. The woman, in contrast, was extremely pretty. Her golden hair flowed down her back in gentle waves and her elegant dress greatly accented her perfect face. Her emerald green eyes were incredibly cunning as she looked at me, clearly interested, though it was as one would study an interesting animal or something like that.

"Are you looking for something? Maybe I can help.", King Crazy asked when I didn't respond.

"Yeah, the kitchen."

"You didn't find it? How long did you look?"

"Three freaking hours. And you know what? It doesn't exist. I guess you forgot to put it in what, with all your kingly duties." I ranted. The three men looked incredulous that I would speak to their king like this.

He, on the other hand had that pained expression that was once probably amusement. The woman looked amused as well, and a little impressed.

"Have you tried looking behind you?" He asked.

"Yes, of course I- OW!!!" I said as I whirled around and hit a very large statue of a dragon.

This was followed by chuckles from the three men, a hollow sound like nails on a chalkboard, probably from the crazy man, and outright laughter that sounded like bells chiming from the blonde woman.

"Katari, I would like you to meet Everet", Big nose man, "and Olinder", Greasy haired man. Then, after a look full of respect yet at the same time annoyance for something from the two, he added, "Though I suppose I should say Lords Everet and Olinder," The men smiled gross, creepy smiles. "And this man here", He pointed to the hawk-man, "Is General Skuller, one of my top generals. And this lovely lady is Lady Emren, the head spellcaster after myself."

They all nodded to me.

Then Lady Emren asked politely, "Would you care to join us for lunch?"

I nodded. Normally I would have politely declined and then fought it out if anyone had a problem with it, but she seemed nice and at this point I was really, really hungry.


	5. Chapter 5

At lunch, all that they wanted to talk about was some war they were having. I mean, hey, I liked wars as much as the next person but these people were just creeping me out with some of this. Sadly I felt obligated to stay for a while. I was one of those people that felt awkward getting up too soon and if I felt awkward that probably meant that in this place it was a social don't. It was sort of Arthurian, as in the time of King Arthur-esque.

That guy, Olinder, had some crazy obsession with all this boring crap.

"My Lord", He said in a pitiful attempt to sound respectful, "We must get rid of Surda and the resistance. They're growing by the day, swelling in numbers. They have one of the eggs too, and sooner or later it is going to hatch! Then they will have a rider and we will have none!" I thought about the books I had read and remembered that they had been wiped out along with the dragons. So there were some left? This was so confusing, I wasn't sure why I bothered to try to understand.

"The Varden should not be our primary concern.", Said Everet, who then turned to the King, saying, "My leige, the elves have been holed up in their forest far too long for my comfort. What have they been doing? One hundred years ago their numbers were severely depleted, yes, but now? The have had one hundred years to amass an army and weapons. Magic. I know you are all powerful, but the empire-"

"I am the empire", King Crazy growled, looking like a total psychopath in that moment.

"Right, sorry, sorry", Everet apologized hurriedly.

"And what of the traitor, Murtagh?" Lady Emren asked, probably to break the uncomfortable silence. Then again, there was something in her eyes that made me unsure of her motives. But just as soon as I had seen it, it had disappeared.

"I have the Ra'Zac after him"

At this point everyone except Galbatorix and Lady Emren shifted uncomfortably in their seats, even the way creepy general who looked as though nothing could faze his total scariness.

I was totally oblivious as to why this was a bad thing. I mean, obviously it was by the reaction of the men at the very mention of the name, but still.

Lady Emren took pity on me, thankfully. She seemed to notice that I had no clue what any of this was, so she turned towards me and whispered, "The Varden are rebels who are the enemies of the Empire. They ravage towns and steal goods from merchants and soldiers, killing for no apparent reason. The elves are, or were, their allies, and incredibly powerful magic users. Also someone stole one of the last three dragon eggs years ago, though no one knows where it is. We are fairly positive that it has not hatched yet, which is good. Then Murtagh was very high up with the King, but he threw it all away like the idiot that he is and ran away. he has allied himself with the wrong people and is a traitor to the Empire. The Ra'Zac are fearsome creatures whose breath paralyzes even the toughest man with its terrible odor. Their mounts can fly and some say that they are the size of a dragon. They are beastly, the last of their kind, but the most gruesome thing about them is their diet. They prefer human flesh, raw and fresh. They live in a place called Helgrind and the people there worship the stone, sacrificing two slaves there every month. They eat them, of course, but at all other times they have to hunt, so people wandering around in the woods or too close to the giant spires can become their prey." The look on her face, though she herself had called them hideous and gruesome, told a different story. She looked fascinated by it and took a strange pleasure in it.

The King glanced over and, seeing the look on my face, scolded her gently for scaring me.

"I'm not scared. It's just," I made a face, "Completely disgusting."

"Promise I'll take you sometime" She said, grinning hugely. "If you liked that, you'll just love the worshippers, especially the priests. Now that's a sight to see."

The others laughed, and I attempted a small smile, even though I felt awful. Not like I was going to be sick, it was just that I felt bad for the poor people who got eaten by them.

Trying to change the subject, I asked "What other places should I see here? I really don't know that much about Alagaesia yet, but I'd like to see it at some point."

"Du Weldenvarden has lovely hunting." Supplied Lord Olinder.

"So do the Beors" Added Lady Emren, "And the Spine."

"Do you like hunting?" Asked the General.

"I've actually never been." I stated. Everyone except the King tried to hide their shock at this revelation.

"Then at some point you must allow me to take you. No one should be without that experience. It is quite breathtaking." Lady Emren told me, "This is definitely at the top of the to-do list."

All of a sudden, she seemed to think of something.

"Sire, do you think she has any magic in her?" She wondered, addressing the King, though it seemed to be almost to herself.

"We are not testing that, Emren. I told you that before she even came." He growled dangerously.

"I just thought that it would be fun." She pouted, "Especially with hunting. I wasn;t suggesting you have her serve. But I think she would enjoy it, and I could teach her."

"No." There was a finality in his tone that made her stop short.

She gave up on this topic, and an awkward, uncomfortable silence followed. I decided that this would be the best time to make my exit, so I politely excused myself and practically ran in the direction of my room.


	6. Chapter 6

I had no freaking clue where I was. I mean I knew I was in Crazyland, A.K.A Alagaesia, in the castle of King Crazy, A.K.A King Galbatorix, who I was still not convinced was my father, and I knew I was totally, hopelessly lost. I just couldn't fathom how I had gotten to that point. I knew that I had left the kitchen, turned left, hit another statue, and kept going. This was one humongous castle. Why did people need this size of a house? I mean really, I had thought the mansions in America and all had been big, but they were nothing compared to this. This was like a giant labyrinth that would have fit a crap-load of the biggest U S of A mansion anyone could find. Would it really kill them to put in a map or something? Stupid stone-age people who had a pathetic attempt at a civilization, stupid, stupid King Crazy bringing me here, stupid, stupid me for not memorizing this place by now...

Okay, so I realize that ranting was getting me nowhere, but still. It was actually quite comforting to me. I became so absorbed in my thoughts that I didn't see the girl and ran right into her.

"Ohmygosh, I'msosorry!" My apology came out like mush, I was so embarrassed.

"Oh, It's okay." She smiled, "Hey, my name is Aramae."

"Catie", There was no way I was changing my name now.

"Oh, that's an interesting name. I don't think I have ever seen you before." She frowned, thinking, like she couldn't decide whether or not she had.

"No, you haven't"

"So when did you get here?"

"A few days ago"

"Where are you from?"

"Far, far away."

"Really? That is so amazing. I grew up here," She made a face.

"Yeah. Not too thrilled to be here myself."

"It is pretty though"

I snorted.

"What?"

"Nothing"

"Okay. So who are your parents? What are they here for? I didn't think anyone new had come recently, or that anyone was supposed to be coming."

"Um... hey, you know your way around here pretty well right?"

"Yeah, sure."

"Can you help me find my room?"

"Of course! Where is it?"

"If I knew that, I wouldn't be asking. But it's somewhere near the library I think."

"Oh, yeah I can show you where that is." She started walking in the direction from which I had just come. "Hey, you look kind of familiar. I could swear I've seen you before, yet I am absolutely positive I never have. There's just something about you that looks familiar."

"I can honestly say that I have never even been close to here before."

"Really? This is so odd."

"Tell me about it."

"Okay, well your hair is familiar, and your eyes, and your face kind of but not and-"

"Woah, I didn't mean that literally."

"Oh, sorry." Her brown eyes looked so hurt.

"No, you probably saw my mother." I said, trying to make her feel better.

"Oh! Really? Who was she?"

"Um... Hey, is this the library?"

"Yeah"

"Okay, my room is over there."

I started walking over, and when I glanced over my shoulder she was following me. I got to my room and opened the door.

"Thanks for showing me where the library is. I was really lost." I paused, then added "Maybe I'll see you later."

"Yeah!" She said brightly.

"Bye." And with that I shut the door and changed into my pajamas, then climbed into the bed. It felt really nice since I had now been awake for over twenty four hours and I fell into a deep sleep almost instantaneously.


	7. Chapter 7

_I was riding through the forest. I could feel the egg safely in the bag at my side. The others rode in front and behind me, and I felt as safe as someone could be when they were away from home being hunted every second. Suddenly, the horses sensed something. It was just in time because the urgals came out of nowhere. Everything was moving so fast. The others were on the ground, bleeding, with arrows in them. My heart ached, but there was no time to try to help them or, if they were dead-no I couldn't think that. I wouldn't. Right now I had to focus. I had to protect the egg, keep it away from that monster, Galbatorix. He killed them, slaughtered them mercilessly. Even though I knew he wouldn't kill this one, he might manage to get it to hatch for someone and even if they weren't already loyal to him, he would force them to swear unbreakable oaths to him. It was horrible. He would amass an unstoppable, unchallenged force that would destroy the elves, the dwarves, everything. He was insane._

_There were flames. They came out of nowhere. Magic. But from who?_

_I got my answer seconds later. A shade with bright red hair and eyes the color of blood stepped out, his pale, cracked skin shone in the moonlight, showing him for the sick monster he was. I clutched the bag closer._

_He began rambling, but I ignored him. I needed to get the egg away, somewhere where he couldn't get to it and either keep it for himself or give it to the wicked King._

_I reached for the magic then, knowing I would be captured. I raised up the brilliant sapphire colored stone and spoke the words that would send the egg safely where it needed to go, to Brom. I knew I probably wouldn't come back from this. My last thought before blacking out from the energy loss was my hoping that the shade would kill me quickly so that I couldn't betray my people or the Varden. Or my mother._

I woke up from the strange dream covered in a cold sweat. It had been so vivid and real. Not the normal abstract dreams that made little sense like I usually had. It was as though it was someone else's. I reached up to touch my face, make sure I was still me, and felt something wet. I had been crying. It was the oddest thing.

I got out of the bed and shivered as I remembered the wretched shade. Somehow I actually remembered what they were. He had once been a person, but had eveil spirits bound in him through sorcery. They were incredibly powerful with magic and nearly unstoppable. They also had an appetite for blood, as in they liked to kill.

I shivered again.

I went to try to find a bathroom or something so I could shower. It took me a little while, but eventually I succeeded and read the little note above the bath that stated 'pull to fill' on a rope hanging over it. Well, if that was all.

So I pulled and waited. And waited. And waited. Nothing happened and I was about ready to leave when a group of people, servants I guessed, with huge buckets of steaming water. They poured them in until it was full and then left.

I took the bath quickly, trying to forget about the stupid dream, and the fact that I now hated the King more because of the fact that he had servants. It was horrible. Then again, he was a King.

'Stop trying to give mitigating circumstances!' I told myself, then laughed at the fact that I was arguing with myself. I did it all the time, which probably was not a good sign for my sanity.

Blue dress today. It was such a happy, sky blue color. I really wanted to get out of this dank castle and go outside. Anywhere would be better than this place, it was so stuffy, with all the crazy weird people. I was still not entirely convinced that I was not in a mental asylum. Maybe the fact that I was seeing all of this was why I was in one. I was delusional. Then again, everything was too real. It just was all wrong. I didn't understand anything!

I rushed off to find Lady Emren or the King to see if I could go somewhere, not here, when I ran into Aramae again. Literally.


	8. Chapter 8

"Hi!" Aramae greeted me brightly.

"Hey." I smiled. She was probably the only truly good, nice person I had met here so far, and I actually found myself hoping we would be friends. She was short, with wavy brown hair and an olive-toned complexion. Her hair went halfway down her back, and today she had some of the hair in the front pulled around her head and into a small ponytail in the back. Her face was sort of heart shaped and she stared up at me with her big brown eyes. They were as big as they could be without starting to be ugly, as in they didn't make her look like a fish.

"So, where are you going?" She asked.

"I was actually going to go eat." I thought for a second, then asked, "The King isn't there, is he?"

"Not that I know of. I actually haven't seen much of him today. He has himself holed up in his study probably. He does that. Just randomly disappears, and no one really knows what he is doing."

"Just as long as he isn't eating right now. If that's true, I really don't care what he's doing."

"But he's the King!"

I laughed.

"King Crazy." I said

Her eyes got really big and she giggled nervously, seeming incredulous that I would say something like that about the almighty ruler of this place.

"Be quiet!" She said nervously, trying not to laugh at what I had said, "If they hear you, they will arrest you for treason!"

I laughed again. "I'm pretty sure they won't" I told her.

She looked doubtful, but didn't press it.

I started walking in the general direction of the kitchen.

She followed, of course, and suddenly, I guess for conversation's sake, I asked her what her parents did here.

"My mother is a spellcaster and my father is one of the generals. I don't get to see him much, which is fine by me. He is obsessed with marrying me off. I don't know anyone I would marry yet, so I am perfectly fine with him being away, especially since sometimes he sends me stuff. My mother lets me do whatever I want."

"Oh, that's interesting."

"So what about your parents?" She asked me.

I groaned internally. Why? Why couldn't she just let that go? She just never stopped until she got an answer. So I decided to try my best to answer her without actually answering her.

"My dad is like a general or something, but he's really... high up there." I was having trouble, struggling for the right words. "I never knew my mother. She died." I attempted to act all sad, but it was hard when I was using the story that the King had fed me when I got here. It was hard to act sad when I knew who my real parents were.

"Oh. I'm sorry." She said, and thankfully left that subject alone, moving on to twenty questions times a billion.

"What's your favorite color?"

"Red or purple"

"You have to pick one."

"Fine, purple"

I didn't even have to ask her anything. She just answered her own questions when I had answered, sometimes even before.

"Mine is yellow. So what is your favorite pass time?"

"Um... reading."

"Me too!"

And so it went for the entire way to the kitchen, all through eating, and then some.

After we finished eating, she finally ended her barrage of questions and said she wanted to show me the stables. I thought it would be fun, so I followed her, trying my best to memorize everything, the hallways, the statues, anything that would help me navigate this place.

"You know." I remarked, "King Crazy should seriously consider putting in maps around this place."

"King Crazy?" The King's voice behind us made both of us jump, me because I was startled, her out of fear from what I had said.

"Yup." I told him "Because I this is crazyland, and you are king, therefore you are King Crazy."

Aramae squeaked in fear, but the King only laughed his nails-on-a-chalkboard laugh.

"So where were you going before I startled you." He asked.

"Aramae was showing me the stables."

She looked so scared and confused at the same time.

"Well, you actually have riding lessons in a little while, so that is a good idea."

I scowled. I hated being told what to do with my time. The King made that pained face that was supposed to be a smile and walked away.

"What was that?" She whispered when he was gone. "He wasn't even mad!"

"Yeah, um, about that... That's my... dad."

Her eyes went really, really wide, and I was afraid they might fall out of her head if she wasn't careful.

"Wow! Seriously?" She continued to freak out for awhile, and by that time I had to go to the stupid horse lessons.

The guy teaching me, Master something-or-other, showed me the horse, a beautiful war horse. He was black and shiny, like a raven. He looked strong and graceful. Master Whatever told me I could name him, but I couldn't think of anything at that point, so I said I would do that later. He was fine with that and jumped right into the lesson. He went on and on and on, but seemed pretty happy that I was a fast learner.

It was fun. I found out that I actually liked riding horses, even though the guy teaching me was a boring drone and the lesson dragged on and on, probably for a few hours. I was happy when it was over and I could go back to my room.

Once there, however, I found that I was more than a little bored. I needed something to really do.

I went to the library to see if I could find a good book. I found nothing that held my interest in english. It was all history and science stuff that totally contradicted what I had been taught my whole life. Everyone here had a very primitive understanding of these things. Apparently some people thought that rocks were alive. I was drawn to the elegant language section. It looked so pretty, I wished I could read it. I doubted they had a spanish section here. This most definitely was not spanish. That gave me an idea. I had an aptitude for learning languages, so why not try this one? I grabbed one of the oversized dictionaries and left.

It was so disorganized. There was no particular order to the words as far as I could tell. I liked it though. It was calming to sit there and sound our the words for stone and water. That sounds really weird, but it was true. I really enjoyed it.

I finally realized how late I had been reading and studying when I started to have trouble staying awake. The words blurred together and I decided I needed sleep. I had a feeling I would have plenty of time later since I was fairly certain I wouldn't be going anywhere anytime soon.


	9. Chapter 9

The next day I woke up really late, so it was already about midday. I threw on a deep red dress with black designs on it, swiftly pulled up my hair in a ponytail, and darted to lunch.

Just my luck, I thought. Of course the last person I wanted to see would be there. King nut-job was sitting there with Lady Emren, General Skuller, and another woman I did not recognize. They were talking animatedly about something and I hoped that that would be enough for them not to notice me. Of course I could never be that lucky.

As I tried to steal quietly and inconspicuously to a table far, far away from them, Lady Emren just had to notice me. She gave me a warm smile and told me to come sit with them.

Of course I had to go over then. It would have been rude not to. Not that I actually cared what they thought, I had just been brought up not to be rude and it felt wrong to go against that. Plus I was pretty sure these people were really dangerous and could do some major damage if they wanted to.

So I walked over and sat down between the amazing nut-job and Lady Emren.

"So what have you been up to since I last saw you?" She asked, almost looking legitimately interested. Her jade eyes were fixed on my face.

"Oh, nothing." I answered, honestly believing that everything I had been doing would bore them out of their minds. I was positive that they didn't want to hear about Aramae and the fact that I was learning another language. My one riding lesson was pretty dull, and the rest was just sleep. The one odd dream, but that was it, just a dream.

They looked at me funny, appearing to think that I had been just a little bit too abrupt in my answer. There was a look in Emren's eye. It was almost... was that a spark of anger I saw? All of a sudden my head hurt and she got this look of intense concentration on her face. I felt something odd in my head, something that shouldn't be there. I definitely would not have noticed it if it wasn't for the fact that I spent so much time there. I knew everything that was there, memories, etcetera, that I could get to at will, and that pretty much only came up when I wanted them to, since I had a really good understanding of my mind plus a photographic memory. I had ideas and dreams and things stored in various places, and such, and I knew where everything was. This was something foreign, something that should not be there.

I delved fully into my mind to go see what it was. When this happened, I totally lost all contact with anything that was not in my mind. I had developed such an amazing control over everything that I could literally stop using things like my eyes and ears at will. I sought out the source of my discomfort, and to my surprise, I discovered something I was not entirely prepared for. There was someone there. It was like a separate consciousness in my head, almost as though I could see them, with their own distinct personality. They hardly seemed to notice me at all.

After studying them for a few more seconds, I decided that I didn't want them there and tried to see if I could shove them out of my head, my last refuge. They took full notice of me then, and shoved back. They were strong, but I eventually won and forced whatever, whoever it was out.

I focused my senses when I was finished, my mind feeling normal and familiar again, to see Lady Emren looking at me with a shocked expression on her face. Then, slowly, a large smile spread across her face.

"Your Highness, I think we have here one of the most adept minds I have ever had the pleasure to see." She stated, still staring at me with that cat-that-ate-the-canary look.

"What do you mean?" He asked curiously.

"She sensed me in her mind and not only that, she managed to expel me without using that much effort!"

The King looked at me strangely, almost as though he couldn't decide whether to be impressed, angry, or what.

I, meanwhile, had easily decided which emotion I was; Angry.

"That was you?!" I almost yelled at her.

She nodded.

"What the hell were you doing IN MY HEAD!" I screamed at her.

"I just thought you forgot to share some information with us. I didn't think you would notice." She seemed totally unfazed by my anger.

"And why wouldn't I? It's my freaking head!"

"Most people don't notice unless they have had training."

"So what you are telling me is that you can be trained to invade peoples privacy and then you just do it on a whim to see if there was something interesting that happened that maybe I didn't tell you about?!" I laughed incredulously, still seething. "Seriously?"

"Oh, there's much more to it than that. There's also blocking and retaliating, though I have never seen anyone who could shove someone out. You can jab at their mind, but what you did was extraordinary! I cannot even imagine what you could do with training. And what if you were a spellcaster too! You have so much potential! I mean, I had suspected some before, but now, now there is not even a shadow of a doubt in my mind! You will be great someday." She gushed, and the king had decided that he actually might not mind this. He looked like he agreed with her on this issue.

When she was done, the King surprised her by saying "Emren, would you mind instructing her? Every day before her horse riding lesson."

"I would love to! It would be my pleasure to teach such a wonderful and promising girl as your daughter."

Suck up, I thought when she was finished with her speech. She was one of those people who could charm anyone with just her mere presence, however the more she talked, the more I disliked her. There was something unsettling about her, the same thing I sensed in the all powerful nut job over there. It was like she was incredibly unstable and anything at any moment could tip her over the edge. It seriously worried me, especially since I would now have to spend more time with her. But even more obvious than that, and I was surprised it didn't repel more people, she was really and truly obnoxious.

"Wonderful! About how long do you think you will need with her daily?" The King inquired.

"Not much time at all. Maybe two hours."

"That sounds reasonable."

I just loved how they ate up my time without asking my opinion at all. It was horrible. I already had a one hour lesson, now a two hour lesson. What could possibly be next?

Of course I should have known better than to ask questions like that. The next thing I knew, Emren was saying "My Lord, I think it would also be beneficial to your heir to be skilled in swordplay and such. She might as well have a lesson on that very day along with mine and Gadral's."

"An excellent idea, Emren." The King said, "Very well. She shall have a one hour lesson with Master Boden."

"What about Archery?" The unknown woman with the streaming brown hair added. "Such a skill is necessary for all successful people. Surely you would not neglect this with your own daughter."

Finally he decided to ask my input on something.

"Katari, what do you think? Would you like to learn archery with your lessons already? I also have to add a lesson in writing-"

"I can write just fine." I practically snarled at him.

Everyone did a double take at my tone.

"Alright, we will change that to an hour on dwarvish and an hour on the Ancient Language, which you will need for your lessons with Lady Emren. So what do you think of adding Archery to your ever growing list?"

"Why not?" I said dryly. Why get rid of one of the things I actually wanted to take.

"Wonderful!" He didn't sound like it was wonderful. He sounded like his usual monotonous self. "I will have one of the servants come wake you for breakfast, after which you will go first to your lesson on dwarvish, then to the one on the Ancient Language. You will spend one hour with Lady Emren, go to lunch, have another hour with her, go to horse back riding, then sword fighting, then archery. You will then go to dinner and after that you may have free time to do with as you please."

Oh yay, I thought to myself, It sounds just like school. Can't wait to see if they give homework.

Out loud I simply said "Fine" Then excused myself and went off to find Aramae. I needed someone to talk to.


	10. Chapter 10

I gave up trying to find Aramae when I realized that there was no way her endless babble was going to help me in any way, shape, or form. So, I just went to my room and was very surprised to find that I was incredibly tired. I fell asleep almost immediately and had another odd dream:

I could see it so clearly, the girl with the deep black hair. She looked pale and tired, in intense pain, and it was easy to see why. She had cuts and welts all over her, as though someone had shoved something into her stomach, her chest, almost shaped like...a finger. She seemed totally unaware that I was here, although that could be explained by the fact that the only light in the whole dank cell was a small candle sitting in a corner. It illuminated her quite well, though, and I could see all the cuts and bruises, and that stream of blood that led away from her. It was horrible, disgusting, that someone could do that to anyone.

I was startled when someone threw open the door and swept into the room. The person that entered appeared to be a man, yet there was something...off. He had red hair and eyes, the color of fresh blood, just like what was trickling out of the woman lying in the cell. He was tall and had pale, pale skin against which his veins stood out and were very noticeable. His face was twisted and cruel, but there was something more, something that I couldn't put my finger on, something that made him seem as though he was not human.

I glanced over at the girl when he didn't notice me, and she looked almost frightened that he had come, but she also looked as though she had expected him to come, like it was inevitable, and there was a note of defiance in her face.

The creepy guy walked over to her slowly, and I suddenly realized that he was the one from the last dream, and she must have been there too. I felt bad, but then again, it was only a dream. Right?

He was taunting her now, telling her that she would never go home, that her family, her friends, her people, would all die, and it would be her fault. Everyone broke eventually, he told her, and she would soon as well. He would get the information he wanted, and they would go in with an army and slaughter her people, the elves, and they would be no more. He threatened her further, saying that if she did not reveal the location right then, they would bring her with them to the forest, and they would force her to watch as they murdered every last elf. And there I sat, watching the sickening scene, an invisible ghost in the corner, watching but never seen.

I woke with a start, bolting upright. Shaking my head, I dropped my face to my hands. There was no way that I was going to be able to get back to sleep, so I got up and tried on dresses, purely out of boredom, eventually finding a pale pink one that I liked and, since I knew I still had maybe an hour until I had to get to breakfast with the creepy nut that claimed he was my father, a claim that I still did not believe. So I decided to play with my hair. It was amusing to me. I tried a low ponytail, one braid, two braids, a tight bun, and a loose one, which is where I left it, my long dark hair. I still couldn't get used to it. I did like it, however. It was as though it should have always been that way. It looked natural.

I sighed and decided I should probably go see if it was time. Not having clocks was very difficult. I would probably be late for everything from now on.

It turned out I was late, as I had guessed I would be. King Crazy sat at his usual table complete with guests, new ones this time, new ones I didn't know and didn't really care to get to know either.

He glanced up at me and the look on his face was less than happy, which wasn't saying much. The guy never looked happy, but I did have to admit that this was more toward the annoyed side, which suited me just fine.

I gave a half what-can-you-do smile, shrugged, and sat in a corner far, far away from him, which made him even more annoyed. Which, in turn, made me nearly burst out laughing as I ate hastily.

As I was finishing, he walked up to me and, I swear, literally growled "Time for you to go to your Dwarvish lesson."

I scowled and marched off after the servant he had told to show me where the room that the-guy-whose-name-I-promptly-forgot was waiting for me.

He was this short man, who would have definitely been a legal dwarf in the U.S. He was pretty old and had a really rough accent. And, as I quickly learned, he really did not take well to any form of mispronunciation or trouble in general with any word he gave me to learn. He also did not like it if you learned to slow, which apparently I did since I couldn't learn an entire language in the course of an hour, and he liked to yell and scream, switching rapidly between English and what I assumed was Dwarvish. It was just as course as it looked on paper, if not more so, and I was pretty sure a large quantity of them would have made the prim ladies at the palace gasp if they heard them. I was incredibly grateful for the end of that lesson.

That meant I had to move on to the 'Ancient Language' or, as I liked to call it, the pretty language that flowed on paper and in no way resembled Dwarvish. The instructor was much more patient and I learned a lot. it did help that I had taught myself some of the words already on my own. At least this guy appreciated my gift at pronunciation. He didn't yell at me for every mistake either, and I was glad, because you have no idea how stressful it is to have a little short guy a little over half your size yelling interesting words in your face at the top of his lungs in a language you don't know while standing on a table and making some choice hand gestures. Not fun.

I found I honestly enjoyed this class, and wished I could just change that first hour into another of this. Of course it ended too early and I had to go see Lady Emren. I was totally non-enthusiastic about this as she was slightly loca en la cabeza.

I laughed internally at the sudden thought of cussing out the mini-man teacher in a language the he didn't understand. I would have to try that sometime. For now, I got to deal with the crazy woman. If Galbatrix was the King of Crazyland, she was definitely the princess.

I grimaced as I entered the cavernous room she was in. It reminded me a little of a cave and a dungeon mixed together.

"Are you excited?" She asked, her eyes aglow with pure delight "I can't wait to see what you're capable of." Okay, she just graduated from crazy to creepy-totally-weird-and-crazy. This was going to be a long hour.


	11. Chapter 11

"All right, we will start off with testing to see how adept you are with your mind." Lady Emren stated in that voice that sounded like a small child with a new toy that they couldn't wait to figure out how it worked, " So, let's start off with some basics. I want you to try to keep me out of your head."

"Okay, how do I do that?"

"I'm not going to tell you that. You just have to do your best." She said, then "You have until the count of five. One."

I thought for a split second about how I would do this. How did you keep someone out of your head? I knew how to get them out, but until yesterday I hadn't had any idea that anyone could get into anyone else's head.

"Two."

What if I just stopped thinking? Maybe there would be nothing to see if she got there.

"Three."

Well, except for memories. That could be a problem.

"Four."

I still couldn't think of anything to do. Seriously, five seconds was not enough for this kind of contemplation.

"Five."

Suddenly, I felt a sharp pain in my head, like getting stabbed.

"Ow!" I yelled, and the pain receded.

"Again!" She called across the room.

This time I threw up a wall in my head, imagining it there around all of my other thoughts. It didn't help at all. Almost immediately there was another stabbing feeling in my head, which was gone as soon as I acknowledged it. This cycle repeated at least seven more times before I finally gave up and decided not to even try anymore. I just sat on the floor and stared at a brick. That was all I did, not thinking or anything, just staring.

And nothing happened. I sat there for a little bit before I realized that there was no pain, and I glanced up in surprise to see Lady Emren with a look of shock and intense concentration on her face.

That was when I finally felt the pain, much harsher than the other times, but it was also gone much faster.

A look of triumph lit up her face as she gleefully said "You figured it out! You figured it out!"

"Yeah, now would you mind explaining it?"

"Sure. To block someone out you just have to concentrate on something and never let that concentration falter. If you do that, all anyone will see is what you are concentrating on."

"Oh"

"Yes. Do it again." She ordered.

After an hour of this torture I had a really nasty headache and I was really happy that I got a break in the form of lunch, even though it meant that I had to go eat with the stupid king and the other psychotic people that he usually hung around with.

It was just as boring as usual. The King started out by asking me "So, how are your lessons progressing?"

"Well, considering it's the first day, I'm not particularly far."

"How was dwarvish?"

"Um, fine besides the scary little midget man who likes to yell a lot."

Everyone at the table laughed at that, even though I didn't find it particularly funny.

"And how were your studies of the ancient language?"

"I like it fine."

"I talked to Master Vilfaedin and he says you are extraordinarily gifted in that area, and Lady Emren has also informed me that you are astounding."

"Oh. Um, thanks?"

The rest of lunch progressed in a similar fashion and I was about ready to jump out of one of the castle's non-existent windows when it was finally over and I was forced to go back and deal with the evil woman that likes to give people headaches for no good reason.

When I got back to the dungeon room I was braced for another round of viscous attacks on my mind, but instead Lady Emren said that she was going to see if I had any talent in the way of magic.

"Now I am going to throw this at you," She held up a stone, "And you are going to stop it before it hits you. Just say 'letta' and concentrate. If you have magic and can access it, this should work and you should be able to stop it before it touches you."

With that she threw the stone as hard as she could at my shoulder.

I yelled "Letta!" and concentrated on it as hard as I could, but nothing happened except that the stone hit in the shoulder hard enough that I was fairly certain I would have a really nasty bruise the next day.

She somehow had another stone in her hand when I looked back at her, which she threw at me again.

Again I yelled "Letta!" and again nothing happened, save the stone smacking my arm in exactly the same spot as before. She continued this for quite a while with a seemingly never ending supply of the stones.

Finally I was totally fed up with the stones smacking my shoulder in the same place with a scarily accurate precision that this time when I yelled "Letta!" I felt something within my mind stir, something that had always been there but that I had never really been able to access until now. It surged forward, filling me, and the stone stopped dead in midair and then dropped to the floor. Suddenly I felt a large drop in energy that caught me off-guard as whatever had just filled my mind receded back into its inaccessible corner.

Lady Emren looked as though she could leap for joy but told me that I needed to build up my energy so that I could do more complex magic and also larger quantities of it t one time but that she was sure I would be able to because I was pretty good at it. Not the best she had ever seen, but far from the worst. She let me leave early and as I got up off of the floor I found out just how much energy I had used for that.

"Here, let me help you to the kitchen so that you can eat something before your next lesson."

I let her help me up and was surprised by how hungry I was. I was seriously contemplating skipping the other lessons but I had a feeling that Lady Emren would be following me to make sure that I got there when I was supposed to. So I headed off to more torture, which it honestly was. Hours of physical activity when you are drained is not very good, however I found that I enjoyed the sword fighting and archery and that I was actually quite good at it. In archery I only missed the tree by forty feet, which, while it doesn't sound very impressive, was a very large accomplishment in my eyes considering it could have been over one hundred and I had managed to string and shoot it fairly quickly, so in to me I did really well.

I went to sleep exhausted, the first time I had been truly exhausted in a very long time, and I was pleased that I had no dreams at all.


	12. Chapter 12

For a few weeks I went to those lessons, giving King Crazy no trouble. Okay, so that was a lie, but it was minimal. Sort of. About three days after that first day, I couldn't take it any more because of how terrible I was at all of the different subjects. So, I had decided to simply not go anymore, which lasted up until I was supposed to be in my lesson with Lady Emren. She had apparently gone crazy, thinking that I must be dead in a ditch somewhere, and had gone to the King, who had been a little bit smarter than her and had first gone to my room. When they found that I wasn't there, they had reached out and found me by going into my head and figuring out that I was in the library. They had been really, really pissed off and...well, let's just say I found out just how loud someone could yell at you inside of your own head, and how nasty a headache you could get from it. The vast majority of this story was later relayed to me by Aramae, who somehow knew everything around here.

I considered my lessons a lot like school, except that at school I used to get A's and B's, whereas here I was pretty sure if I got graded in the vast majority, I would be epically failing. I was really good at learning the ancient language, which I had started calling elvish because the instructor had told me that the elves spoke it as a first language, before going on to learn english and dwarvish. I was also really good at the mind stuff, however in the magic department, I didn't progress much further than that first day. At first, Lady Emren had given me a whole bunch of boring things that she wanted me to accomplish only using magic. She said that they were supposed to frustrate me into using it, however I found that I didn't care enough to learn that way. She started getting angrier and angrier and reverted back to throwing things and trying to make me stop them before they hit me. This worked, to a point. I could only stop things up to a certain size without passing out. This annoyed her to no end. Then, in horse back riding, I could never get anything just right, which frustrated Master Gadral to no end. Also, I found out that even though I had thought that I was doing well with sword fighting and archery, I was actually worse at them than at dwarvish, at which after three weeks, I was still at a day four level.

Four weeks after that first day of lessons, I started getting better at dwarvish once I finally got the hang of it. It actually wasn't so bad. Elvish was by far my favorite lesson and I was already learning the grammar aspect of it. Master Vilfaedin said that I was progressing more rapidly than most. I figured it was simply because I wanted to learn it, but I knew I had a natural aptitude for languages.

That day, I walked into the cave-room where my lessons with Lady Emren took place, and she surprised me by saying "Today I am going to teach you how to go into someone else's mind." This was different than every other day because thus far, all she had let me do was keep people out of my mind. So far, I had learned to keep out one person or a whole group at one time, and I was fairly good at that. But this, this was new and different and sounded like a lot of fun.

"What do I have to do?"

"Open up your mind and leave yourself so that you can enter someone else's mind."

I tried, but it proved to be way too difficult for me. She offered the explanation that maybe I was so used to my own mind and being there that, while this offered me some interesting advantages such as being able to shove people out of my head, it also had some disadvantages, the most obvious being that I had a very hard time leaving my own head to even attempt to get to someone else's. She said I shouldn't be worried, though, that it would come with time and lots and lots of practice.

She also had more surprises in store for me when she said that instead of doing a whole bunch of magic today, I would only have to do that for about half of the lesson and the other half would be learning how to compose spells. It was way more fun not passing out this time.

I was also progressing in sword fighting and archery, though not nearly as quickly as the others and I truly wished that I could drop them. I didn't see the point of learning how to fight someone and then hack their head off or impale them with a sword, or learning to shoot someone or something with an arrow in the most efficient way. I would never need it for anything but hunting, and even then i wouldn't need it because I had all but become a vegetarian here. The meat was really nasty.

After all of my lessons that day, I was going back to my room when I ran into Aramae.

"Hey," I said, "What's up?"

"Come on, I want to show you something." Her voice was strained, excited, and I could see the nervousness in her face, the way her eyes were really wide.

"What?"

"A room. Toward the King's room. I found it the other day. It's really pretty, especially these amazing stones that are in it."

She took off at a run, and I hurried after her. She wound her way around hallways, up stair cases, and past rooms containing things varying from studies to bedrooms to God knows what else. Finally she stopped in front of a door. It was rather unimpressive, just another wooden door like all of the others around here.

She carefully checked all around before opening it so slowly I was certain that I would fall asleep before she finished. At last she stepped through and I followed, closing the behind myself.

She hadn't been kidding about how amazing the place was. There were living plants in here, things that were not common in the rest of the castle. It also had windows and the most intricately carved dragon statues I had seen thus far. They were made out of gold stained different colors and had the same color eye as the color they were stained, only the eyes were gems. They were in every color imaginable, about the size of a hand, arranged all around the giant room with only about three inches between each one, so when I say every color, I mean every color. What caught my attention and held it, though, were four stones in the middle of the room. They were pretty big, held up on pedestals, and they were all different colors. One was deep crimson, the next white like an opal with veins just like an opal has going all around it. The third was a brilliant emerald color, and the fourth was bright purple, like amethyst. My birth stone as a matter of fact.


	13. Chapter 13

The stones sat there, perfect in the orangey light. Slowly I walked toward them, mesmerized by them. They were so beautiful, especially the purple one. Without telling it to my hand rose out in front of me and touched. It was smooth, not a single chip or imperfection present on the pristine surface.

"You really shouldn't touch them. We aren't even supposed to be in here," She sounded incredibly anxious, her eyes flitting around the room so fast it would have made me dizzy if I had been paying close enough attention.

But I wasn't.

"Ari, stop worrying. No one cares that we are in here, and even if they did they don't know that we are here." I said absently, voice soft and only half there, eyes fixated on the stone as I ran my fingers over its brilliant surface.

"I think we should go" She sounded on the verge of having a major panic attack.

"Why?"

"Because the King...He knows things. You can't hide anything from him, it's practically impossible."

"But only if he's looking, right?"

"I-I don't know."

"What kinds of things does he know?" I turned to face her, though my hand remained on the strange stone. I was suddenly curious, dying to get back at him for putting me through those stupid lessons.

"He- It's hard to explain. He just knows almost everything that matters or is of any importance whatsoever to him."

"What kinds of things matter to him?"

"Anything pertaining to the war, like the elves and the dwarves and people that matter or that he doesn't already have complete control over. That sort of thing."

"Wait, you said almost?"

"Well, I mean, he doesn't know some stuff and it makes him really angry. He is always storming around, but I'm not sure what exactly. I know it has something to do with Murtagh."

Murtagh. I remembered hearing that name before. That first day, when I had sat with King Crazy, Lady Emren, the General, and the two creeps who were apparently Lords or something. They had been talking about Murtagh and how those really awful sounding creatures, the Ra'Zac were chasing after him. That must be one of the things that the all-knowing nut-job didn't know; Where this guy was. And he must matter, probably he was dangerous since such terrible-sounding creatures had been sent after him.

"Who is Murtagh?" I asked, careful to sound as though I knew absolutely nothing. I knew that it probably wouldn't matter if I did, I just wanted to pretend until I was sure.

"I don't know that much, but I know he was the son of Morzan, one of the King's close advisors. He died a while back and recently Murtagh had stepped up into some sort of command position, but then, out of nowhere, he just took off. I dunno why. He had it pretty good here. It wasn't like he was a servant or anything." She just babbled on and on.

"So, he doesn't know everything, right?"

"Yes."

"And how much do you think that he cares about these little rocks?"

"Well, probably no much, considering he has a whole empire and he doesn't come in here very often, if ever."

That was all of the confirmation I needed. I picked up the stone and started walking out the door with it, stuffing it in the bag that I had started carrying around to hold all of the dictionaries I needed.

When we were halfway back to my room, King Crazy came tearing down the hall, followed by a very large entourage of soldiers. They flew past us without acknowledging our presence and we glanced at one another, then ran as fast as possible the rest of the way to the room.


	14. Chapter 14

Aramae and I darted into my room and quickly slammed the door shut behind us.

"I guess he really does care about that stone." She said, her voice relatively calm, though there was something else there, something I couldn't quite figure out.

"How do you know that?"

"Well, he was heading in that direction only seconds after we left the room with a bunch of soldiers in tow and-"

When she didn't continue, I asked "And what?"

"Well, my tutor tells me stories about...stuff."

"What kind of stuff?" I was trying to keep my voice calm and even, but that was becoming increasingly difficult.

"About... about King Galbatorix being a rider."

"So what does that have to do with this stone?" There, the annoyance had finally seeped into my voice.

"Well...my tutor said that- that Galbatorix has the last five dragon eggs. Or he did because he lost one of them. He said that they are really pretty and look like brilliant, perfect, colorful stones." Something about her voice bothered me. Slowly it was losing the fear and worry that she had had all day. It had also gotten a little bit lower, not like a guy's voice, just like she had been trying to make sound extra innocent this whole time. It was almost like she wanted people to think she was too stupid to understand anything. Suddenly, it dawned on me.

"You knew! You knew what these were when you showed them to me!"

She simply nodded.

"Why would you do that?!"

"Well, technically I didn't know what they were, I only had a hunch."

"So why did I have to get involved? Why didn't you just check whether or not they were yourself? Couldn't you have stolen it instead of me?" I frowned, "Why didn't you steal it instead of me?"

"Well, I wasn't actually going to steal it. I honestly did not anticipate you taking it."

"So why did you let me?"

"I tried to talk you out of it!"

"Well you didn't do a very good job."

"I did my best! You didn't listen!" Suddenly she seemed to remember the egg, "And go hide that before he tries to scry it!"

"Scry?"

"Go!" She was waving her hands frantically, "I'll explain while you hide that." I turned and walked into my closet, grabbing the ugliest, puffiest dresses I could find and went to the very back corner of the closet where I set the egg down and covered it with all of the dresses.

"Make sure you cover it well enough that no light can touch it!" She called and I rolled my eyes as I checked to make sure I had.

I walked out, crossed my arms over my chest, and demanded "Okay, now explain."

"Scrying is magic that allows you to look at anything that you have seen before in a reflective surface as long as there is enough light to see it."

"So, wait, what were you planning to do to figure out if those were the eggs or not? You just said that you weren't going to steal one."

She reached under the hem of her dress, magically (Okay, yes, I do know it wasn't real magic, but still) producing a rather large hammer. She shrugged at my incredulous look and stated in a matter-of-fact tone "I was going to hit them as hard as I could with this hammer and if they broke they were stones, but if they didn't chip then they were the eggs."

"So why did you bring me?"

"Because I ran into you along the way and it would have looked strange to you if I had run by you looking nervous and I wasn't sure where your loyalties were-I'm still not-so I had to take you in case you decided to tell the King."

"Okay, I definitely would not have told King Nut-case about that. I probably wouldn't have noticed, much less cared. So, how do you intend to find out who I am loyal to? And who else is there to be loyal to anyway?"

"There are a lot of powerful groups in Alagaesia."

"Well which one are you loyal to?"

"The Varden."

"Oh, I heard something about them. They are rebels?"

"Yes."

"And they are against the King?"

"Yes."

"Then I'm all for them."

"I just have to check to make sure. I'm going to check your mind to be sure. It might hurt some, but don't block me out."

"Okay."

She got a look of intense concentration and I felt that feeling I was so used to right before a foreign consciousness touched mine, then it was there, and she hadn't been kidding. It wasn't as bad as when Lady Emren jabbed me with her mind, but it still felt like a mild headache. I could feel memories being dredged up, ones from here, and past thoughts and emotions. I felt her digging further and further back until she stopped. Somehow she couldn't touch my memories from before I had come, which gave me some reassurance. At least I got to keep some secrets.

At last she withdrew and she looked fairly satisfied with what she had found.

"So, what happens now?" I asked.

She grinned, "Well, you could stay here, or you could help me attempt to get as many of the other eggs as possible and then run away to go to the Varden with whatever we have."

"I'll take option two."

"It won't be easy." She warned.

"Yeah, cause I just love this place." I rolled my eyes and she laughed the first honest laugh I had ever heard exit her mouth and I decided that I liked this new person. She was the type of person that I would want as a friend.

"Okay, so to get the other three eggs, or as many as possible, we have to make sure that there are no guards, but if there are we have to get rid of them somehow..." She spent the rest of the night explaining how we would pull off our heist and get out as easily as was possible. I chimed in sometimes to fix a flaw, but mostly I just listened and learned my role, a lot of which involved some serious improvisation and thinking on my feet. This was going to be great.


	15. Chapter 15

After we formed a plan to steal something, you would think that the first thing that would happen would be to find some really dark clothes and knock out the guards or something like that, right? Not exactly, not in this case. The first thing that actually happened was Aramae finding the prettiest, most regal dress she could and telling me to put it on. Then she did my hair and made me look as princess-like as was humanly possible.

She dug through the closet a little more until she found a sturdy leather bag into which she threw some expensive looking jewelry, a pair of boots she said I would need when one wore out, and the purple egg. Then she left for a while, hurrying back in with an armful of clothes.

"What are those?" I asked her when she had thrown the door shut.

She looked at me like I was an idiot "Clothes."

I rolled my eyes, "I know that. I mean why do you have them and whose are they?"

"Oh. They are some of Murtagh's clothes that I took out of his room since he won't be back very soon. You can't wear a dress riding horses, especially not like that." She gestured at my outfit.

"I don't even wear this kind of thing on a regular basis."

"Right. So these are just better clothes for all of the traveling we have to do and- do you have your bow in here? The one your father-"

"THE KING. NOT my father." I snapped, cutting her off.

"Okay, so, do you have it?"

"Yeah."

"You are going to need that. We have to hunt for food. I have some in this pile and down with my stuff, but it won't be enough to reach the Varden."

"Okay."

"Now we have to drop this stuff of down by the horses." She said while stuffing my new too-large clothes into the already packed bag.

After getting the bag and bow down to the horses with no trouble, we went quickly and as quietly as we could to go check the room for guards. It turned out that there were two of them there, so it was time to begin plan A.

After taking a deep breath, I stepped out from behind the corner and walked up to them with as much authority as I could muster.

"Can we help you?" Asked one when he finally acknowledged me standing there with a very impatient look on my face, or so I imagined.

"Yes. Go fix my room!" I snapped.

"I'm sorry, but we can't do that. You see we are doing a very important job right now that you don't understand so we can't deal with your silly little problems at this time." He sounded like he was explaining this to a five-year-old.

I scowled and tried for the most menacing tone I could "If you don't get in there right now I will make you wish you had never been born. If my father," I almost blew it when I said the word father since I almost laughed or heaved. Either way it would have been bad, "hears about you not doing what I told you to do then he will be really angry." I thought about what Aramae had said about the King, "And I'll make sure he tortures you really slowly before he kills you."

"Oh yeah? And who is your father?" He taunted.

"King Galbatorix."

The two actually looked scared at that point as they stared at each other, silently deciding what they should do.

I sighed in relief as they hurried off in the direction of my room and Aramae came out from where she had been hiding. She told me to wait here while she went into the room with the three remaining eggs. I was supposed to signal her if anyone came.

A few agonizing minutes later I heard footsteps coming rapidly down the hall and it sounded like a lot more than just those two guards so I opened the door where she was shoving the second-to-last egg in a bag and I must have looked panicked enough because she, with one last mournful look at the red egg, ran out after me and we darted down the hall and around a corner just in time.

We kept running as hard as we could until we made it to the horses. I was afraid that the gate would be shut, but somehow Aramae had timed it perfectly because a huge group of people were in the process of entering and I figured we scared them pretty badly as we flew out of the castle, fleeing into the unknown. Well, at least for me. She probably knew where to go, or at least I hoped that was the case.


	16. Chapter 16

The first night outside of the castle was terrible. I had been camping plenty of times before, but this was far worse than any experiences I had with nature before. According to Aramae we still had two weeks to go and I already couldn't take it. We had to stop and she left for maybe two hours and then she returned with two cute little bunny rabbits. She was holding them by the ears and I walked over to see them because bunnies are really cute but when I got closer, I saw something dark dripping from their necks. I had mistaken the darkness for dark stripes of fur before, but I now realized that it was blood. The poor little creatures were dead and I cringed back. She laughed and began to start a fire, at which point I realized what they were for; We were supposed to eat them. I was supposed to eat them. Or at least part of them.

"I'm not hungry." I told her.

She glanced up in surprise from cleaning the rabbits, which basically means that she was taking off the fur, the skin, etcetera.

"But I thought you would be after all of that riding. I'm famished!"

"Well, I'm not." I wrinkled my nose, "At least not anymore."

"What, don't like to know what your food is?"

"I prefer not to see it before it's cooked. Not to mention I don't eat rabbits." I was still averting my eyes from the gruesome scene.

"Well, get used to it. Most of what you are going to be eating from now on will be rabbits, dear, lizards," When she said that, I very nearly heaved into the bushes, "Basically, you eat anything we can catch."

"Is there a vegetarian option by any chance? Like, no meat?"

"Sure, until we get to the desert. You can eat clovers and stuff."

"On second thought, why don't you hide the dead things from me until they are far, far beyond recognition, and then lie to me." I glanced at her to see her trying incredibly hard to hold in her laughter.

"I'll try." Her voice was shaking from all the effort she was exerting not to laugh.

"Thanks."

I did my best to eat some of the food, but it was quite difficult. Sleeping wasn't particularly easy either especially with the lack of a bed, a pillow, a blanket, or anything commonly associated with sleeping, and it was really cold outside at night. I spent a good part of the night simply sitting there shivering.

After my few pathetic hours of sleep, it was back to galloping full speed ahead to wherever the Varden lived. I was having some severe trouble staying awake during the day and by the time we stopped to make camp, I was absolutely exhausted.

True to her word, Aramae sent me to sit by a little stream that flowed ten to fifteen yards from the camp while she made the food. I sat there contemplating everything that had happened since my birthday, and alternately watching the stream and the small brownish fish that swam around in front of me in large schools, occasionally leaping up out of the water as a larger fish got too close. I considered every person I had met, deciding how I honestly felt about them and just sorting everything out in general. Okay, King Crazy was simple. I felt that he was a crazy nut-job with some major issues whom I despised. Next was Lady Emren. She was fairly nutty herself, and she also had the added bonus of having inflicted a ton of mental torture on me, so I was certain that I was perfectly justified in not liking her. Everyone at the court got on my nerves, and I didn't particularly care for any of them. Aramae. That was tricky. When I had first met her, she had been incredibly annoying and had practically stalked me, and even though I knew she had just been acting, I couldn't help but think of her as I had known her for weeks. However, she had helped me out of the stupid castle, so I gave her that much. I decided that I was undecided about her, which ruined the point of thinking about this in the first place.

With a sigh I gave up on that whole idea and I suddenly recalled the stone, sitting in a bag that just so happened to be next to me.

I reached in and pulled it out, admiring how it shined in the light, when all of a sudden it began to shake rather violently and cracks began appearing down the sides. I was mesmerized, so much so that it didn't even cross my mind to ask Aramae what was happening or if this was a bad thing or even if I should be scared. Well, it was too late now, regardless of what was about to happen and the consequences thereof.


	17. Chapter 17

I watched, enthralled, as the egg shuddered and cracks appeared all around it. It wobbled a bit and then one piece came out. Then another, and another after that. Suddenly a scaly, purple snout poked out of the newly created hole. I inched closer to get a better look, but it vanished back into the shell.

I frowned wondering what was happening, when another piece flew away from the shell, as if the fresh air had given the dragon a renewed vigor.

I moved back as fast as I could when a rather large shard of the egg flew rapidly toward my face. It grazed my cheek and I soon felt something warm dripping down my face. Probably blood, some faraway bit of my consciousness concluded, but I was too distracted to care because that last piece had been enough for the tiny dragon to escape and it stumbled around a little, blinking and taking everything in.

It was about the size of a small dog, with little wings and razor sharp white teeth that peaked out from under its upper lip and shining talons to match. It was amazing, having every hue of purple packed into the dragon, changing as the sun hit it, from deep purple in the shadows, to a lighter color when it stumbled into a ray of sunlight.

It continued to look at anything and everything around it, until its eyes zeroed in on me. It tipped its head to the side and analyzed me for a moment before leaping at me, surprising me with its lithe grace.

Then, it smacked me in the chest and I found out just how heavy the little creature was. I felt its sharp claws digging into my leg and reached down to adjust it. When my fingers made contact with it, a sharp, icy pain shot through my body. It finally receded to my palm after burning for a while, where it smoldered for a moment and was gone completely.

Cautiously, afraid of what I might find, I slowly turned my palm up and had to blink several thousand times just to convince myself that I was not hallucinating. There, on my right palm, shining in the sunlight, was a silvery line swirling its happy way all over my palm as it wound its way up my wrist a little way, much like the stream in front of me. It was beautiful, and mesmerizing, and...

"What did you do to me?!" I demanded of the little dragon who stared me straight back in the eye as if to say 'why, whatever do you mean? That is perfectly normal'.

"This is so far from normal it is not even funny. See? I even stopped speaking in contractions, that is how absolutely not funny this is. My hand is...is...gah! It's freaking shiny!"I was ranting more to myself than to the funny little creature perched on my knee watching in amusement.

Aramae must have heard me, so I must have been talking a lot louder than I had intended, because she ran over to where I was seated on the ground and asked in a worried tone "Are you oka-" when she cut of abruptly, and practically growled, "What. Did. ."

"Um, I don't really know, it just sort of opened and came out, but it had a kind of hard time with that cause I guess the shell was a little thick or something, but it made it out, and then I touched it, and it felt really weird, king of like burning, but really cold, and then my palm was all shiny and-"

She cut me off, "Do you have any idea what you've done? What happened? The impact this is going to have?" Her voice, low and menacing with restrained emotion, grew steadily louder as she spoke.

"Hey, it's not my fault it hatched. It's not like I planned this! I just wanted to be normal with my old, normal life, and my old, normal family before that stupid retard who fancies himself to be a king dragged me away from that and now every freaking person on this freaking planet hates me and I swear you all just like yelling at me because you never seem to stop!" I screamed back at her as a tear leaked from the corner of my eye.

Her face softened the smallest bit as she turned on her heel and marched back the way she had come.


	18. Chapter 18

That night I pulled myself into a tight ball, just because it was really cold, and cried with my little dragon curled up next to me. It was for everything that had gone wrong as of my birthday, which was basically everything. I never cried, ever, so this was over by the next morning. I was fine, my breakdown over, and I was as emotionally stable as was possible in my circumstances.

I got up off the ground and was suddenly really angry. Why the hell was Aramae so mad at me for the purple creature hatching. It was currently trotting by my side squeaking. I was not sure why and I didn't really care because I had my mind set on confronting Aramae about why she was so mean. I honestly couldn't figure it out.

For once I was awake before her, and I found her curled up on the ground under a blanket. I bent down quietly so that my mouth was right next her ear, and at the top of my lungs I screamed "What the hell is wrong with you?!"

She started awake, glanced at me, groaned, and pulled the blanket over her head. I was surprised by that since she was usually up really early and if a deer was a hundred feet away, she would practically jump out of her skin. It really annoyed me that she wouldn't get up when I wanted. It was also not so smart on her part, since I kicked her. It wasn't too hard, but I hoped it would do the trick.

I was wrong. She stayed where she was and barely flinched. So I kicked her even harder, as hard as I could. That worked. She jumped up, livid.

"What is wrong with you?!" She yelled.

"Me?! What's your problem?" I yelled back

"What do you mean, my problem? I'm not the one going around kicking people when they are attempting to sleep!"

"Yeah, you just get mad at people for no good reason."

"What are you talking about?"

"Oh, I don't know, maybe yesterday when you got all upset that fluffy over here decided to hatch for me. I don't even know how that works! All I know is you are freaking out for no good reason over things that I have no control over!"

"I was just worried what the Varden would think about- wait, did you just say Fluffy? As in, you named your purple, scaly dragon Fluffy?" She looked shocked, as though she were unsure of what to think of the situation.

"It's only a temporary name. I don't know if it's a boy or a girl, so I can't really name it yet. So, I gave it a temporary one. Isn't that right Fluffy?" I glanced down at the creature and grinned when I saw the OMFG-you-did-not-name-me-Fluffy look on its face. It almost looked like it understood what I was saying.

"But it doesn't have any hair!" She exclaimed, incredulous.

I simply shrugged, "Why do I care? It's just temporary."

She sighed, exasperated "And why don't you just ask whether it's a boy or a girl?"

My head whipped back up as I asked, "Huh? How do I ask it?"

"With your mind. You two have a special bond, you just have to reach out with your mind. It will be far easier than trying to talk to any other creature, intelligent or not."

"Oh. And what were you saying before about the Varden not being happy with something?"

"Right. I was just thinking about how they will take the daughter of Galbatorix," She spit the name, "In their presence, especially as a rider."

"What's wrong with that? I'm my own person. I didn't even grow up here! And I hate him!" I said getting defensive.

She put her hands up like she was surrendering, "Hey, I get that. I know you. But the Varden don't, and they've been hurt by the King, so they will most likely be less receptive to you. Just warning you."

"Oh. Well, I'll just have to prove them wrong."

She smiled. "Good idea. I just hope that it works."

"Why wouldn't it?"

"The Varden aren't very good about changing their minds. Once they are made up, it is very difficult to change them, especially for someone in your position."

"What happens if they don't accept me and change their minds?"

She grimaced, "Let's not think about that. It so pessimistic. I'm sure they will like you. Anyway, we should probably feed your dragon." She tried to change the subject.

It worked.

"What?"

She pointed to the dragon who had begun its squeaking again.

"It is hungry."

"Oh. So that's why it wouldn't shut up. I just thought it was trying to get me to throw it or something."

She looked a little worried, so I added, "Don't worry, I wouldn't actually hurt it." Then I muttered, "Much."

The dragon growled at me and I laughed.

Aramae went to go get some food from the animal she had been preparing the other night, and I suddenly realized just how hungry I was. I followed her and grabbed some bread, then took the meat from her, sliced it into much smaller pieces, and walked back over to Fluffy.

I held a piece out in front of it and it nearly bit my hand off.

"Hey! Watch it! You already did enough damage to my hand!" I told it, indicating the silvery mark. It didn't look particularly apologetic as it tried to get at some of the remaining meat.

"Nope, sorry." I grabbed a chunk, tossed it in the air, and said, "Catch it!"

It jumped into the air, snagged the chunk, and gulped it down rather gracefully. The landing was not as good. It was too busy enjoying itself to worry much about the rapidly approaching ground, and landed on its side, rolled over a few times, and eventually lay sprawled on its stomach.

I laughed and threw the rest of the food to it because I felt bad, even though it was pretty funny. But also partially because I wanted to eat my bread, which tasted really, really good since I hadn't had any food in twenty four hours.

After that, I helped Aramae pack everything up and we got on the horses, little Fluffy riding in the bag recently vacated by its egg.


	19. Chapter 19

We rode all through the day until finally, when the sun was just beginning to fall behind the horizon, we reached a town. It was not nearly as large as the Uru'Baen, but it looked incredibly large and welcoming at that moment. There were actually people here. Probably real food and beds and homes that kept out much of the cold. It may sound a little bit dull, but after being away from civilization for so long, this was a wonderful prospect in my eyes. There were all sorts of people milling about. I could see that from as far back as we were situated, shrouded by bushes. They were dressed in very medieval, peasant-like clothing. The colors were fairly drab and would have blended well with a dying tree, in my opinion. Then again, I supposed my own dress wasn't much better for the wear, seeing as all of the riding and sleeping on the ground had made it a lot dirtier since we had started on our journey.

I began to head toward the town, but Aramae jerked me back with a tug of my braid.

"What do you think you are doing?" She hissed.

"I think that I am going to somewhere civilized and stay there all night instead of out here on the ground. It's killer on my back." I whispered back.

"I don't care about your back right now! You are probably one of the most wanted people in the entire empire!"

"Aww! I'm so flattered!" I put my hand over my heart like and pretended to be one of those ditzy girls who get told that they are pretty, even if the person was being sarcastic, as I was at this moment. She didn't seem to recognize that.

"What do you mean? Why would you be flattered?" Her voice rose in volume, as she frowned and gripped my shoulders, shaking me hard as she said, " It. Is. Not. A. Good. Thing." She stressed every word to stress her point.

"Um, I was being sarcastic. I know it's bad. I want to just disappear!" I rolled my eyes at her.

"Sarcastic?" She frowned.

"It means I was just kidding. I was not serious." I spoke as though she were a small child not understanding what I was saying.

She shook her head making her curls bounce, still frowning. "Why would anyone speak like that?"

I rolled my eyes, and tried to explain, "It's humorous to some people."

"To who?"

"Well, where I'm from, they say that sarcasm is the humor of the educated." I stated, grinning at the priceless expression on her face.

"I am very well educated, thank you!" Her face was indignant as she glared at me through narrowed eyes.

"I know, I was just kidding."

"I don't see how people can tell when you are kidding or not. It just doesn't make sense to me." She looked confused and walked off to attempt to figure out the whole concept of sarcasm, which made me laugh.

Finally, she decided that we could not in fact stay in the village, much to my annoyance, because apparently there would be a whole bunch of posters probably offering a huge reward if I was turned in to the empire. She said that everyone would know what I looked like and recognize me on the spot.

I grumbled a little and after we ate some more bread that was very unpalatable thanks to how stale it had become, and went to a small spot I had cleared on the ground and on which I had spread out a blanket, under the pretense of going to sleep.

When I was positive that Aramae had fallen into as deep a sleep as she would, I got up as quietly as I could and headed toward the little village. There was absolutely no way I was going to spend the night on the ground again.

I was maybe halfway to my goal, a small building, though larger than the others around it, that had a little sign informing people that it was an in, when a ray of moonlight came through the thick cover of clouds, and I noticed something purple glimmering out of the corner of my eye. Upon glancing down, I found little Fluffy padding along by my feet.

"What are you doing?" I hissed at the creature.

It looked up at me as though startled and squeaked.

"Shhh!" I put my finger to my lips automatically and glanced wildly around to make sure no one had heard. Luckily nothing in the whole place stirred.

I looked back at my dragon and scolded, "Be more careful! You are going to get us caught!"

It looked sorry and made a kind of growl mixed with a moan that sounded like an apology.

I couldn't help but smile. I knew it hadn't meant any harm by the noise.

Thinking quickly, I ran back, grabbed a bag, and stuffed Fluffy in, begging the small dragon to be quiet.

I hurried back toward the town with my little friend who didn't even move, much to my relief. Not even so much as a twitch. I walked into the inn and a stout woman with mousy brown hair asked me what I needed. I replied that I wanted a room for just a night, paid, and went to the room she showed me to. It wasn't particularly nice, but it was far better than the wilderness. That was really bad.

I fell easily into a deep sleep, with Fluffy curled up next to me. This was only allowable because the door was locked, so no one could intrude and find out that I had a dragon in the room.

That night, I dreamt again of the girl, the elf, who had visited my dreams twice before. She was in a forest somewhere, giggling and laughing gayly. She twirled and skipped off in a manner that reminded me very much of a fairy, happy as could be. This was so odd, so different from the last time I had seen her. She blended with the trees, her tunic a mossy green. At times, she disappeared altogether, reappearing somewhere completely different. I followed, sprinting after her and calling for her to wait. The only response I received was a ton of laughter.

She flitted away and I lost her completely. I darted in the general direction I thought she had gone in, trying to navigate the trees and underbrush. I burst into a clearing to see the scary man, the shade, I recalled, holding the elf by the throat. All happiness was gone from her eyes.

She looked at me with tortured eyes and gasped "They're coming." and her eyes flickered shut.

I jerked awake, frightening my little dragon, just as the door burst open, broken and torn to pieces.


	20. Chapter 20

Through the shattered remains of the door came a whole bunch of armed guards, looking incredibly menacing. They surrounded the room, the flame insignia on their uniforms glinting faintly.

As scary and startling as this all was, I almost burst out laughing at the sight of little Fluffy growling as menacingly as it could at the soldiers. It stood at the end of the bed and looked very silly trying to look like an angry guard dog to the unfazed soldiers. To them, the dragon probably looked just as adorable and cuddly as it did to me.

Then again, maybe not. I got a good look at one of their faces, and he didn't seem to find it cute or amusing at all. In fact, he looked as though he might hurl his boot at my precious dragon.

So I frowned at him and stuck my tongue out, which, yes, I do realize is not particularly mature, but I did it. Then, I decided to try something. I sucked in a deep breath, and concentrated on the one whose face I had seen, as I assumed that he was the leader. I reached out with my mind and gasped as it brushed his consciousness. He didn't appear to have noticed, so I continued and delved into his thoughts. They confirmed my observation about the desire to throw a shoe at Fluffy, only I now saw that it was far more than an idle desire. He honestly intended to throw his right boot at the adorable dragon, though in his opinion it wasn't so cute and cuddly looking.

I decided to deal with that thought later, and delved deeper into this detestable mind to discern what they intended to do, as I already had guessed how they found me and why they were here. Of course the innkeeper would have recognized me, and I scolded myself for not being more careful. She had obviously decided to collect her reward for turning me in, and they were here to return me to the stupid king, a place that I absolutely did not intend to go right now.

Pulling out of his head, I fixed him with my most evil glare, wrenched off my right boot and chucked it at him as hard as I could manage. It was actually fairly hard, since I had been training in my lessons for about a month and had managed to develop a fair amount of muscle.

He grunted and started toward me, as did the others. They had made one vital mistake, I noticed. They had failed to capture me straight away, and there was a window behind me large enough to jump from, though it would be tight for me and probably impossible for them.

I scooped up Fluffy's small purple form and hurled myself out of the window and down three stories, where I landed on my left arm. There was a sickening crunch and pain shot through my arm. I screamed in pain, but jumped up and ran as fast as I could toward the place I knew Aramae was still sleeping peacefully.

I made it about three-fourths of the way when she met me with the horses, looking worried and livid at the same time. I hopped on my horse and threw Fluffy in its bag. We galloped away from the village and the soldiers.

We were not free of them, however. Of course they had brought horses with them. They would not have been able to walk all the way from wherever they had come, even though I wondered how they could have made it so far so fast. It had taken Aramae and I days to reach what had only taken them hours. They had probably already been out searching, I guessed, finding no better explanation.

They followed us, gaining fast. Aramae suddenly reached down into a bag, producing two swords. She threw one to me and proceeded to jerk her horses reins so that she was going in the opposite direction, heading back toward the oncoming soldiers.

Panicking, I followed suit, after a slight hesitation. I shakily held up my sword and prepared for the fighting that I was sure would ensue, fighting that Aramae was already embroiled in.

And it came, fast and furious, in the form of the soldier who now had a very lovely splotch on his face from my boot.

He raised his sword above his head a swung it at me. I squeaked as I blocked it with my own, and again as he thrust it at my stomach. I was fairly certain that his orders had been not to harm me, but it did not look as though he would follow them.

"Oh, come on, you are not still upset about the shoe, are you?" I rolled my eyes and dodged another blow, now slipping easily into fighting mode, pretending that I was at a lesson and these were simply wooden swords that could still break a neck , but they were far less threatening.

He growled and lunged again.

Blocking more easily now, I continued, "Because that is silly and childish to hold grudges. I am sorry that you will have possibly the worst black eye of your pitiful existence, but you shouldn't take it out on me. I mean, it is my fault, but I don't begrudge you for attempting to capture me and take me back to that loon who claims to be my father." Okay, so it may sound like I was being a total airhead, and I was partially, but I also had a plan. People tend to mess up when they are agitated, and I was just waiting for an opening when I could strike him. He was not a particularly adept swordsman, so I was not having a terribly difficult time with him. He had yet to touch, but had also failed to give me an opening. So I was trying to incite him, as he already seemed very agitated and altogether like a very irritable person.

He lunged again, and I parried. "Come on, you are currently trying to kill me, and all I did was throw a boot at your face. It's not like I really messed it up or anything. You were already hideously ugly beyond hope. If anything, this is an improvement."

He snarled, spit flying from his mouth as he renewed his attack, slashing at me as I moved back away from him with every blow.

"Oh, so you weren't horribly disfigured as a child? My bad." I feigned an apologetic expression as I narrowly escaped decapitation.

"Stop that! I am far to young to die, and much prettier than you. I suppose you can't have a wife, after all you are quite undesirable, what with that giant nose of yours, and those teeny little eyes. I can barely see them." I was not exaggerating at all one bit about those features.

He narrowed his already small eyes and pretended to strike to my left, changing at the last moment and slicing my right arm.

I ignored the stinging pain in my are, grunting just a bit, and continued my verbal onslaught. "So, I suppose that means you are homosexual then? You like men better? Do you fancy anyone right now? Do you have your beady little eyes set on him?" I tilted my head in the direction of a very red-faced, pudgy man whose horse, probably a proud, very strong war-horse under any other rider, currently looked strained and about to pass out from the weight.

He howled in rage as I finally got to him, and he attempted to stick his sword through my eye. It was a careless move as I now saw the opening I had been waiting for. By putting the sword up to that height, his arm outstretched in his attempt to reach me, he had bared his entire torso for me to stab away at to my leisure.

I ducked under his swing and drove the blade between two ribs, as deep as it would go. He screamed out, but it soon tapered out into a barely audible gurgle as he toppled from his horse, splashing me with blood.

I sat frozen in shock for barely a moment before whipping back into the present and the impending danger. I searched for another opponent to find that all others were dead or mortally wounded, save one who was locked in a heated battle with Aramae. She was hurt, blood flowing freely from a wound in her side. The soldier was leering at her as he prepared to deal her a fatal blow.

Unfortunately for him, I snuck up behind him, and unnoticed by him, I drew my right hand up to my shoulder. I needed to make up for my useless left arm. I swung as hard as I could, beginning at his left shoulder and pulling down until I couldn't get anymore force.

He fell from his horse, landing on his face, my sword still lodged in his back at the point where it had been wrenched free of my hand by the force of his toppling body in the center of his back.

Aramae and I sat there breathing heavily for a moment, taking the time to survey our surroundings.

The sun was beginning to rise, bathing everything in a pinkish light to reveal our gory surroundings. The townspeople, having heard the clangor of the fight, were standing, observing the scene with wide, frightened eyes. Small children clutched their mother's dresses, fearful of whether we would come after them as well.

I looked down and almost heaved at the sight. I had a fairly strong stomach, but the sight of the twenty-eight bodies and dismembers limbs would be enough to make anyone unfamiliar with it to feel sick.

I looked up from the sight to see Aramae's pallid face just as she collapsed off of her horse from the loss of blood.


	21. Chapter 21

I stared in shock for only a few seconds before reacting. I jumped from my horse to kneel next to Aramae, whose side was pouring forth what little excess blood she had left. There was barely enough left for her to stay alive. If she lost much more, she would die right there on the spot.

I checked her pulse, already growing faint. Next I examined the gash in her side. It was not very deep, but it was still bleeding profusely. It was just long.

I ripped a strip of fabric from the hem of my pants with the help of a knife from one of the bags, spiraling it upwards to make it as long as possible so that it could be tied around her waist. Then I grabbed one of the spare shirts and pressed it to the cut. Holding that in place with my foot I tied the strip of fabric around to hold it in place.

I glanced up to find a crowd of townspeople advancing cautiously but quickly. They did not look like they wanted to help either.

I went to get Aramae on her horse so that we could leave before they got here but remembered my broken arm. I was also dismayed to see that the blood was already beginning to soak the shirt closest to where the cut was. Running through the situation quickly in my head, I realized I had only one option; I had to heal her with magic. I didn't consider leaving her here to die an option at all.

I found the words I would need and reached for the magic in that far corner of my mind. It took some minutes of slamming into the barrier that separated me from the magic I knew was there, but I finally broke through and felt it flood my mind. I concentrated and directed it with the words "Weis Heil."

The silvery mark on my hand and wrist glowed purple, the same color as Fluffy, and I felt the magic leave me, as well as a considerable amount of energy. Then...nothing happened. I couldn't figure it out. What had I done wrong? There was still blood all over the shirt which was still covering...oh. I had forgotten to take off my makeshift bandage. So it probably had worked. It better have worked.

I reached down and removed the strip of fabric and the bloody shirt. This revealed a thin line on her side, a scar, and nothing else, save some dried blood. It had worked. I sat back and sighed in relief, suddenly feeling the effects of the magic. I couldn't believe just how tired I was.

I dug around in the bags until I found a piece of bread which soon disappeared as I was absolutely ravenous. As I was eating the stale crap that all of a sudden tasted really, really good, Fluffy hopped out of its bag and trotted over to ask for some food, which I gave to the little dragon. Aramae had saved some of the meat from the other night, thankfully, so Fluffy was quite content. The townspeople had halted, as I now observed, for fear of me. Apparently two girls killing a bunch of soldiers wasn't scary at all, but a teensy bit of magic, and it was time to flee.

When they saw me look their way, they turned around and ran away for dear life, tripping and stumbling in a massive panic. I rolled my eyes at the illogical stupidity of these people. Why would they attempt to attack me after I had just killed people, but the minute I healed someone, they ran screaming in the other direction? This place was just plain weird.

Aramae had still failed to wake up, even though she was no longer in mortal danger, save from any soldiers as I was pretty sure there was no way in hell that I could fight more than two, and even that was a stretch. I still couldn't move her since my arm was still broken and I couldn't fix that. I still wasn't strong enough to fix bones and I was sucked dry in the energy department.

I sat there in silence for a while, bored out of my mind. I had nothing to do, until Fluffy hopped onto my lap and I decided I was tired of calling my dragon 'Fluffy' and 'it'.


	22. Chapter 22

Attempting Aramae's advice in mentally speaking to my dragon proved to be a difficult feat. I was really adept at getting people out of my head and keeping them out, but I had never really managed to get into someone else's mind. After hours of work trying to get into Fluffy's head, which everyone said was supposed to be really easy since we shared some sort of bond or something, I was about ready to rip my own hair out. So I decided to change tactics.

"Fluffy? Can you get into my head?" I felt incredibly stupid for saying that. Even in my head it sounded idiotic, but out loud? To a dragon that couldn't speak? And a tiny dragon at that. Now that made me want to run and hide under a rock, never to show my face again out of embarrassment.

Surprisingly, I felt something touch my mind seconds later, Fluffy staring at me intently. The alien consciousness felt totally different than any other I had encountered, yet it somehow felt familiar, like an old friend that you have not seen in a while, but the two of you used to be best friends. Strangers, yet not.

Tentatively I asked the thin tendril of thought that was not mine, _Fluffy?_

_No._ Came the clear yet small-voiced answer, like that of a particularly articulate and outgoing child.

_Are you my dragon?_ I asked.

_Yes._

_But your name is not Fluffy._

_No._

_Well, I already knew that. So what is your name?_

Only silence radiated through the connection.

_So shall I just start guessing and hope I get it right?_

_Yes._

_Wonderful._ I rolled my eyes at the creature and it seemed to be laughing at me.

_So, are you a male dragon?_

Silence

_So you are not going to be cooperative? Fine. Mr. Tinkles it is until you tell me whether you are male or female. Got it?_

The dragon glared at me in annoyance.

_So, are you a boy dragon?_

_No._

_Okay, that's a start. So, how do you feel about opal._

_No._

_Fine. Amy?_

_No._

_Rose?_

_No._

_Julia?_

_NO!_

_Jeez, okay, sorry, my apologies. Um what about... ugh, you picked the wrong color, you know that? What kind of name fits a purple dragon? There are plenty for all the others, like if you were red you could be Ruby, or if you were green you could be emerald. Is your name Esmerelda?_

_No._

_Grrr. What about Violet?_

_No._

_Is that all you can say?_

_Yes._

_Haha, very funny, I already knew you could say that. Can you say anything else?_

_No._

_Liar. If you can understand me, then you can say it, especially if you sound so clear._ It stared back at me, clearly amused, but it said nothing. I sighed. _But you are not going to, are you?_

_No._

_You are an evil little dragon. You know what? I think you should be called Mr. Hyde because there is no way you are the nice half._

It looked at me questioningly.

_Dr. Jekyll was this scientist who decided he wanted a good half and an evil half separately, so he was two people in one. He didn't want the temptation to the good half and the conscience to hinder the evil nature. So he could switch between the two. Mr. Hyde was his evil nature's name. He eventually committed suicide._ I explained.

The thoughts that now trickled through into my thoughts were highly offended and I laughed.

_I'm just kidding. So, anyway, we can go a little deeper into naming you, so let's see. You came into my life by what seems like magic, and you brought me magic. The elven word for magic is really pretty so we can try that. Is your name Vanyali? If that isn't it, I can't think of anything else. Alright, that is a big, fat lie. I am just too lazy. So is that it?_

_Yes._ Came the resounding reply through the mental link.

I grinned. _Hello Vanyali!_


	23. Chapter 23

Aramae finally woke up a few hours later. I was incredibly relieved and it fed the high that had developed I had named Vanyali and started to talk to her. It felt really good to call Vanyali a her instead of Fluffy the it. So much better.

Aramae sat up slowly. She looked tired and weak. I was surprised that she could even sit up.

"What-what happened?" She asked, her voice sounding as though she had just woken up from a really, long really deep sleep. I guess that's what I sounded like in the morning. That probably meant loud sound was bad. Which meant Vanyali playing with a pot was a bad idea.

The loud crash made Aramae jump ten feet in the air. Her wide eyes scanned the area for the source of the disturbance. When her eyes found Vanyali in her pot, she breathed a sigh of relief.

I shook my head and, through the seemingly unbreakable mental link that had developed when I had first spoken to Vanyali to name her, I asked _What are you doing? Wait, how did you even get the pot on top of the horse? You can't fly!_

_You shall never know_. She replied in a very amused tone. Then she picked up her pot and walked of in another direction.

"So, are you going to answer me? How long was I out?" She demanded after one last glance at Vanyali. It appeared that while not physically, she had mentally regained her normal composure and fierceness. That was a good sign. I hoped that it meant my healing had worked to the extent I originally assumed when I saw the cut heal up in front of my eyes.

I grinned as I thought of the possibilities of my newly found prowess with magic that the bond with Vanyali seemed to have granted to me.

"Hello! How long was I out?" She called again, snapping her fingers in front of my face, breaking me out of my thoughts.

"Oh! Right. Sorry. Umm, about some amount of hours. I really don't know. You went out in the morning, it is now just past midday I think. I'm a terrible judge of time."

"So, how did that happen? I can't heal that fast, and my side doesn't hurt at all. You must have passed out as well."

"Don't you think a new entourage of soldiers would be here by now if I had passed out for a week or two? Or better yet both of us would have died of dehydration. Do you feel dead?"

"What kind of logic is that? How do you feel dead? Dead is," She struggled for words, "Well, dead!"

"My point. You are able to talk to me, therefore we did not pass out for weeks. Which, by the way, is about the time needed to naturally heal from a cut like that. You do have a scar though. I couldn't fix that."

"Of course you can't fix a scar", She said impatiently, "Now tell me how I am suddenly better without any time or effort."

I snorted, "On your part, maybe. I was the one expending the effort."

"What the hell are you talking about?" She asked totally confused.

"Geez, are you more dense than I originally thought? Cause that's kind of hard to do. Though I think you might be able to manage it."

"Hey! I am not an idiot, or dense, or whatever you want to call it." She fumed.

"I beg to differ, since you for some odd reason can't seem to recognize magic. I mean, come on, even a little kid could have caught that in half of the time it took you."

Her face registered shock as she took that in, then she asked in a tiny voice, "M-magic? You used magic? But-but how?"

I rolled my eyes. "I always had a tiny ability with it. Well, I found that out when I started with Lady Emren. But Vanyali has that particular name because she gave me even more magic ability." I explained.

"How does Vanyali equate to magic? I don't understand, I am so confused. And how did Vanyali give you magic? And who is Vanyali anyway?"

"Vanyali is my dragon. The word Vanyali means magic in elvish. I have no clue how she gave me more of an ability to access the magic, but she did."

"So you finally named your dragon? Well I think that Vanyali is a pretty name."

"Good. She is happy you think so since she picked it." Feelings of smugness and accomplishment radiated through my link with her so I sent back, _Yeah, yeah, so you picked a name. It's not that major._

_Well I think that it is quite wonderful._

_I came up with it!_

_Do not try to steal my thunder!_

_What the-have you been fishing around in my head for things to say?!_

_Of course not, She replied indignantly. I made it up._

_Uhuh, sure you did. And I am the Queen of Sheba._

_I heard that one as well._

_Where? In my memories?_

_Of course!_

_Hah! I caught you! Now quit poking around in my head before you say something really dumb._

_How else do you expect me to learn?_

_I don't know, you could try asking._

_But it is far more fun to watch your memories. Those of you receiving a concussion while sailing are quite humorous._

_I...but...you...gah!_

_Don't sound so upset. I enjoyed it immensely. And you breaking your wrist a week later? Priceless._

_Ooooooh. I will deal with you later. Right now, we have to get out of here. I am happy that you can truly talk and all, but stay away from the embarrassing memories please._

_I don't know that they are embarrassing when I begin looking at them._

_So here's a thought; stay away from my memories._

_No._

I sighed in exasperation and looked at Aramae, who was looking at me with a curious expression on her pale, green-tinted face.

"What?" I asked.

"What were you thinking about? Your facial expressions were quite funny to watch."

I groaned. "Apparently everything I do is funny." I made a face and she laughed.

"So you never told me what you were thinking about."

"I was speaking to Vanyali."

"You can do that?"

"Yes. We have this sort of mental link. I can create them or go into other people's heads, or even an animal's, but the only difference is that this one never goes away."

"Oh. That is quite interesting."

"Sure." Changing the subject, I added, "We should probably go before Galbatorix sends a massive group of soldiers and the townspeople get over their newly discovered fear of me."

"What?"

"Long story." I said as I helped her onto her horse. She was still very weak.

"I have plenty of time." She laughed, "I am not going anywhere soon."

"Well, technically, we are."

"You know what I mean."

I pulled myself onto my horse and sighing, said, "They weren't scared that we killed all of those soldiers, but the second I healed you, they ran running and screaming in the other direction in some massive mob."

"That's not that long."

"Yeah, well." Vanyali hopped onto the horse with the pot in her mouth._ Wow. You just jump onto horses. There was a lot to explain there. _I thought sarcastically.

_It was fun to make you wonder._ She replied as we galloped away on the horses as fast as we could get them to go, as far away from the little village as we could get.


	24. Chapter 24

_Are we there yet?_ Vanyali asked in her annoyed-whiny thought-voice-thing.

_No, no, and for the hundred-billionth time, no_. I replied in a thought-tone far more annoyed than hers. She was giving me a major headache and I pinched the bridge of nose. I had the sneaking suspicion that she knew exactly what she was doing to my head, and even worse, I got the idea that she was doing it on purpose for her own personal amusement. She was so nice to me.

_Vanyali, do you actually care where we are going? I know that you know that we don't know where we are going and that you also know that we just stop around sundown. So why do you continue to ask me that every few seconds for the past couple of hours?_

_Because it bothers you._

_Why would you want to bother me?_

_So you will feed me._

_So that is what you are after? What you think you will gain by giving me a migraine?_

_Yes._

_Did you ever consider asking me for food?_

_No. I didn't think of that. It is quite an interesting concept._

_Of course not. You probably gave it the same amount of consideration that you gave learning how to speak._

_Of course. Feed me._

_I'll feed you when this goddamn headache goes away._ I growled back at her, not in a very good mood.

_Feed me NOW!_ She screamed in my head

_God, you sound like a freaking two-year-old._

_I am technically only a few days old._

_Yes, but you are getting your speech skills from my head and I am sixteen years old._

_Do you need any other explanation?_

_What are you implying?_ I asked rounding on her, ignoring the throbbing in my head that made me wish I had sunglasses to block out the offensive light of the sun.

_I am implying that you speak as though you are two._

_Yeah, when I was one!_

_Is that not quite contradictory?_

_I was always a fast learner._ I muttered, narrowing my eyes, which when I thought about it would look rather strange to anyone watching, since all but myself and Vanyali were completely oblivious to the conversation that was occurring in our minds.

_So how did you speak as a two-year-old?_

_Like a four-year-old._

_You were a strange child._

_Yeah, well, I hate to break it to you, but you aren't a particularly normal baby dragon either._

_The correct term is hatchling._

_There is no way you got that out of my head._

She flashed me a look that involved a curled upper lip and a wonderful view of her incredibly sharp teeth which I assumed was supposed to be a smile.

I growled in my throat and turned to Aramae who was surveying the landscape to figure out where we should stop.

"So have you found anywhere safe yet?" I asked.

"No." She said a bit too loudly and I flinched.

"I see. Well do you have anything I should know about the Varden?"

"You two really were talking weren't you? It looked like you had been going at it for hours."

I rolled my eyes, "You have no idea."


	25. Chapter 25

_Time to get uuuuuuppppp! Up up up up up up up up. Wakey wakey! _ The horribly annoying sound of Vanyali's voice in my head incredibly early in the morning jerked me from my peaceful dreams that were filled with ponies and unicorns. Not literally.

_Why? _ I groaned forcing myself to sit up before I accidentally fell back asleep and her unending mental-bothering became a whole lot worse.

_Why what?_ She asked innocently. It was most definitely that sickly-sweet false sense of innocence that almost hides the laughter underneath.

_Well, for starters, why do you insist on forcing me to get up at this ungodly hour in the morning so that I can...what exactly do you want me to do?_

_I want you to feed me._

I groaned

_What? I am only doing what you told me to. Did you not say that I should ask?_

_Yes, sadly, I suppose I did._

_Well I obviously can't do that while you are sleeping and completely unaware of your surroundings, now can I?_

I glanced around, noting that Aramae was already up and moving, cooking some sort of animal. I turned back to my little dragon, narrowing my eyes. _Why didn't you just ask her for food? She happens to be the one awake at the moment and coincidentally cooking exactly what you want._

_Well you did not tell me that I could ask her now did you?_ She gave me that flash of a whole set of teeth that was supposed to be a smile, the one that she reserved for when she knew she was wearing at my nerves and was having a great time with it.

_Okay, here's another thought, think of things for yourself. I can't tell you everything that you can do. You do have to put at least minimal effort into that._

_I do not understand that concept._

_Ummm, how about...gah! Fine. I know what you want. You want me to allow you to go and dig around in my head so you can have a laugh. Fine! Go ahead, just as long as you learn from it. Got it?_

She nodded happily and I felt a slight pinch as she delved into my memories, probably some repressed memories since I had never felt anything from her before.

I groaned knowing I was probably never going to hear the end of whatever the hell she was looking at currently. Whatever. As long as she wasn't bothering me right now, it was all good. Don't get me wrong, I loved the little creature, but she had this way of knowing exactly what buttons to press, like a little sibling or a really, really close best friend.

Shaking my head, I pushed myself up off of the ground, stretched in my somewhat catlike manner and walked over to where Aramae was patiently cooking whatever she had managed to catch.

"So what is it today?" I asked her.

She made a strange face, as though studying me, debating, before returning to her work and answering "You really don't want to know."

"That bad?"

"Well, not to me or Vanyali, but to your sophisticated palate, certainly." She replied, a hint of a smile on her face.

"Just because I don't eat anything that moves does not make me stuck up." I said flopping onto the ground across the fire from her.

"I never said that." She paused, "Do you really think that I will eat anything that moves?"

"Nah, you cook it first," I raised my voice a notch so that I was positive that Vanyali would hear clearly, "Vanyali is the only barbarian around here. She would probably rather eat anything while it still moves and I would bet she just barely tolerates our disgusting habit of cooking things."

Her head snapped up from where she had been curled on the ground happily exploring my past. _Not true,_ she informed me indignantly.

_So I most definitely did not catch you snapping up lizards and beetles yesterday?_ I arched an eyebrow at her.

_That was different! I was hungry! You refused to feed me!_

_You were taking more pleasure from that than most things you do and I distinctly heard you thinking, and I quote, 'ahh, lizards, so delectable. I can't believe those two insist on spoiling perfectly good meat with their nasty fire.'_ I had to laugh at the priceless expression on her face as she gave me one last glare before stalking off further than she had been before. The laughter was quickly replaced by my loud "Ouch!" as she shoved her way back into my memories, intentionally causing more pain than necessary, while still not being cruel. She was simply making her annoyance known. Which, of course, only made me laugh harder.

_Oh we shall see who is laughing in a few hours_, she threatened darkly as her eyes narrowed to slits.

And she made good on her threat. Barely three hours later while we were riding toward the barely visible mountains in the distance, she succeeded in sticking a spider on my back, which of course made me freak out as I am highly irachniphobic, as well as many other little things for the purpose of making herself laugh. Eventually I dropped her in a saddle bag, fastened it, and urged my horse faster until we could make camp at the ned of the day. I wanted to be there as soon as possible so I would not be forced to endure the torture of any more days of this than necessary. The changes to my body were already becoming quite pronounced from my being in this place. First, I had always been thin and soft looking before arriving, but now my muscles were becoming more toned and defined, my skin a very light bronze. I was still too pale for much more than that, but it was a start. Secondly, my magic, while still just slightly, was increasing every day. I could now access it with more ease since my healing Aramae, and I enjoyed testing my limits. It is a wonderful high to use magic, though the energy loss after is not so much fun.

For three more days we rode toward the ever-growing mountains, until they loomed high above us, towering in all of their majesty. Aramae said that it would only be another day, maybe two, before we made it to the Varden, and I could not wait, but at the same time I didn't want to go. I was anxious about how they would react since she had told me they might not be particularly pleased to see me. For this reason I could not sleep and stared up at the clear sky filled with thousands upon thousands of diamond-like stars, and I couldn't help but call to mind the song twinkle, twinkle little star. It sounds childish and stupid that I would think of that song, but it is so childlike that it reminded me of home and for the first time in a long time I cried, longing to be home, with my family that I had never really appreciated until now, until it was too late.


	26. Chapter 26

Finally I could see it, looming just above us. The great mountain that housed the Varden.

"Okay, so remember, they will probably want to check your memories. That will most likely be done by the Twins." She shivered unconsciously as she said that, "Also, your skill of getting people away from certain things may come in handy. Do not let them near anything having to do with your Father."

I ground my teeth, fighting against the urge to scream that he wasn't my father, just some crazy lunatic who thinks that he is my father. It took every ounce of my self control.

"Vanyali has grown a bit-"

_A bit?!_ Her thoughts flew into our heads showing just how much she thought she had grown, which was maybe a foot. I was sure that was being generous, but there are some things better left unsaid, especially with my short-tempered little dragon.

Aramae laughed. "Alright, she has grown more than a bit. However, she still is vulnerable, even if she can put up quite a fight."

I turned to her, grinning. _See that, Lili, she thinks you can give a better fight than your average cat._

She hissed, causing me to laugh and add, _Don't worry, I think you could do better than that. You could probably take on the average pig and walk away with minimal scratches._

_Cats are better than pigs._ She growled,_ Besides, I could probably take three bears and walk away with no scratches what-so-ever._

"Whatever you say Lili." I said aloud, trying not to laugh again.

Aramae glanced over curiously. "What did you call her?"

"Oh, Lili? It's just a nickname for her. It's the last syllable of her name twice."

"That is very strange. Do you make up nicknames for everyone?"

"Most people. Or things. Yeah, pretty much anything."

"So what would mine be?"

"Ari."

"How did you come up with that?"

"I have no idea. It just sounds right and is shorter than Aramae."

"Oh. So what would you call King Galbatorix?"

I called to mind all of the names I had previously called him. At least those that I could remember. "King Crazy, King Nut-job, anything along those lines."

"Why do they sound so different from the ones you gave me and Vanyali?"

"The nicknames for you two are terms of endearment, like for friends. People you like. For the Royal Lunatic, they are more about showing what I think of him, you know, his inner Galby."

She laughed, then asked "May I try?"

"Umm, you don't really have to ask me if you can randomly call things by something other than their real names."

"Oh, okay, I think I get it now."

I shook my head as I realized how foreign these ideas were to her.

"I am going to call that deer..." She screwed up her face, thinking very, very hard about this, "Feodora."

I couldn't help it, I burst out laughing.

"What?" She asked, completely confused by my uncontrollable laughter. I tried really, really hard to stop, but with limited success. Very limited. "What?!" She asked again, more insistent.

I finally managed to quell my laughter long enough to choke out "That's not a nickname."

"So what is it?" She asked, not understanding what was so funny. She furrowed her brow.

"That's a real name."

"I do not get why that's amusing to you. I do realize that I am not you, however I still don't understand."

"I have no idea." I gasped, still laughing uncontrollably, "Make it stop, make it stop!"

"What? Stop what?" She sounded worried about me now, probably my mental state more than anything else.

"Lili! Lili stop! Tickling....not....good!"

Aramae looked relieved. "Vanyali is just, what did you say, tickling you? That does not sound very bad at all."

"Yes...it....is! Horrible....torture! Vanyali!" With a great deal of effort, I reached to my side, picked her up, and attempted to shove her in her saddle bag. Or, as I liked to call it, her time-out corner. It didn't work, she was too big now.

She growled in annoyance. I decided not to risk setting her back next to me, so I made her a leash out of some extra rope and tied it around her neck. I thought better of it, thinking, for one thing, it would be way too easy for her to get out of, and two, she might accidentally strangle herself with it. So, I took it off and tied it around her body, which she loathed, since I had been correct in assuming that she was going to attempt to free herself.

"Okay then, well in about an hour you might want to let her go." Aramae had that OMG-she-is-mental look on again.

"I will, when she learns that tickling people is only to be done to people that are evil." I glanced at her, reconsidering, then added, "Or at least people who aren't me."

_Got it? _I asked, so that only she could hear.

_Fine, but for the record, I am not happy about this at all._

_Noted._


	27. Chapter 27

When we got close to a waterfall thundering down the mountainside into a pool of water, we dismounted. Aramae walked over to a large wall of stone, banged on it, and yelled something I didn't hear over the roar of the falls. I closed my eyes, basking in the coolness of the mist coming from the splash of water going into the pool.

"Cali! Come on!" Aramae called from where she stood next to something black in the stone wall. I realized, after a few minutes of staring like an idiot, and a very short, scruffy man sticking his head out, that it was a hidden door in the side of the mountain.

Nodding my head, I rushed over to the horses, grabbed the reigns, called Vanyali, who was swimming around and scaring the crap out of the fish in the pond, and hurried to where she was waiting, tapping her foot in mock-annoyance.

The tiny man gave me a rather vicious and totally undeserved glare, turned on his heel and grunted, motioning for us to follow. I looked all around myself at the cave, noting things like the turns we took, the little lantern-like things lining the walls, and other similar features of the place should we need to run quickly. Being underground made me incredibly uncomfortable. I was totally out of my element, which was water. I loved it, grew up in it, would have lived in it were I allowed. It was so refreshing and comfortable and beautiful. It could be easily underestimated, however, that deadly force that was the water. It could fool people with its wonderful beauty, but underneath that was raw power. It could wipe out entire cities with just one wave, kill people by smothering them (Though I had heard that it was much like going to sleep, and from my own near-drowning experience, that was true). I also loved fire. The way it moved fascinated me. I could stare at it for hours and not be bored. I suppose I was sort of a pyromaniac. But I utterly despised the earth, which is why I was on guard, pumped full of adrenaline, and which is also why I was so surprised that I missed the new figures ahead of us.

The people waiting for us further down the tunnel were mostly short, maybe ten or so of them, and two very tall, bald men. They dwarfed the others with their size. Then it hit me, why there were so many midgets around here. In fact, they weren't midgets at all, but dwarves. Well, that was just lovely.

"Halt!" Boomed one of the bald men, the one on the right.

"Come no further." The other said.

"Who are you?" Demanded the first.

"Identify yourselves." The other chimed in.

"Aramae, daughter of Lessia, agent of the Varden." Aramae stated boldly, and the men nodded.

"We know you well, or at least your... reputation." The first bald man sneered the last word, and I took immediate distaste to the two of them. The second hadn't really done anything as of yet save reiterate everything the first had said, in different words, but they were obviously twins, one the perfect clone of the other, so it was mutually exclusive.

"You may pass." The second told her, then turned his creepy stare to me, and said, "But who is this that you bring with you? Prisoner?"

"This is Catari. She is friend and ally."

"Well, now, that is for us to decide." The first twin hissed. I guessed he liked to be in total control.

Aramae looked at me, and told me "They want to check your mind to make sure you are not a liar."

The bald twins rounded on her, hissing like snakes.

She simply waved her hand dismissively, and told them, "Oh, quiet, I just made your job far easier. She has certain...talents." Her eyes gleamed and she flashed me a look, reminding me to guard those thoughts having to do with my being Galbatorix's daughter. She wanted me to make sure that nothing they found could link me to the nut-case in any way.

With one last angry look, they focused their attention on me and I felt a stab of pain at the same time as I felt two new presences in my mind and fought against the urge to cast them out. It was quite difficult.

The seconds of torturous mental pain felt like an eternity, and seconds dragged on into minutes, until finally they reluctantly stated, "She is alright." But I noticed that there was no move made by the presence of the twins in my mind to leave, so I decided to...help them out a bit.

Their eyes practically shot out of their heads as their faces registered shock when they were forcibly removed from my mind with hardly any effort on my part.

"Did I forget to mention I can do that? My bad." I grinned as I led the horses and Vanyali to where Aramae waited with an equally large grin on her face.

"Wait." Dork-twin number one sputtered, trying to come up with some way to get the last laugh or whatever, "We-we must check the mind of the dragon, to be sure it has not been corrupted by-by-"

"Evil." Number two finished lamely.

I laughed outright at this, as Aramae asked, "You can't be serious? That would be terribly disrespectful to the dragon, not to mention the lovely scars you would get should you even attempt such a thing without her approval." She pretended to think for a moment. "On second thought, go ahead. I would love to see this."

They narrowed their eyes and one said, "Who says we would not have her permission?"

"Me." I said.

_And me._ I heard Vanyali's voice in my head, dangerous and threatening, and knew that she was broadcasting it to everyone.

After a few tense moments of glaring and some very intense staring contests, Aramae touched my arm and whispered, "Come on."

I followed after her, further into the dreadful, never-ending tunnels of stone.


	28. Chapter 28

We followed Aramae until we emerged into a vast stone chamber filled with tinted light from the incredibly large sapphire above us. I gaped openly at it. It was so beautiful, mesmerizing. Only when I could pull my eyes away from it did I notice the large crowd around us. They were human and dwarf, men, women, and children. And they were staring at me. And Vanyali. Well, more accurately my wrist and Vanyali. Self-consciously I pulled my sleeve down over it as far as it would go. Just slightly over my palm. Crap.

They gave us a wide berth, which Vanyali was enjoying to the fullest extent. I on the other hand despised it. It was horrible and awkward.

We followed Aramae to a big door, with guards. She told them that we needed to see someone named Ajihad, gave her name, and the guard asked us to wait one moment while he spoke to Ajihad. While we waited the other guard eyed us suspiciously. Particularly me. God, why did everyone think I was so dangerous? I never hurt anyone! Well, okay, there were those soldiers at the village, but they attacked me first! And that guard at the palace, but he totally deserved it, trying to make me go back to my lessons, how dare he! And that one guy at that dinner, but he totally deserved it for those way sketchy looks!

I rethought it, and decided okay, maybe they should be a tad bit cautious. I wasn't super-dangerous, but I had my moments.

Just then, the first guard came out and told us we could enter, Ajihad would see us.

As we went in I took in what appeared to be a study or office or something. Maybe a cross between the two. In front of us sat an imposing man with dark skin, dark hair, and wise eyes. He, too, looked cautious.

_Rightfully so._ Vanyali commented to my mind alone.

_Lili, do you remember our little pig discussion from before?_

_Yes. _She replied grudgingly.

_So what do you think you could do to this man?_

_Bite him!_

_Sweetie, he'd probably lop your head off before you got that close. He kinda looks like he knows what he's doing._

_Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence._

_Just keeping it real._

_Whatever._

I suppressed a grin as Aramae addressed the seated man I assumed to be Ajihad.

Of course, she had to bow. Well, I wasn't going to do that. I had a dragon and it knew how to bite. Or so she told me. I still wasn't convinced that she could take on a cat, much less the confident man in front of us, no matter how much I wished she could take off an ear or so, bring down his obvious superiority complex a few notches.

I snapped out of my thoughts to hear Ajihad saying, "So you have returned?"

I snorted

They both looked at me, and he asked, "Sorry? Do you find this amusing?"

"Um, sorry, it's just that you asked if she returned and obviously she has since, you know, she's standing here and therefore can you not logically conclude that she is in fact here without asking? I mean are you that dense?"

They gaped and Aramae smacked me in the arm. Vanyali on the other hand snickered that coughing noise that is her version of a laugh.

"I suppose I did not need to ask such a question." Ajihad conceded with a slight smile, and I guessed by his and Aramae's reactions that he wasn't exactly used to people standing up to him.

"Anyway," He returned his attention to Aramae, "Who have you brought with you?"

"A new rider"

"Gosh, what is it with you people and being a whole army of Captain Obvious? I mean come on, obviously I'm a freaking rider, hence the totally amazing dragon," Thank you Vanyali said happily, "and the funny tattoo going up my wrist."

"Going up your wrist?" Ajihad frowned.

"Yeah, why?"

He stood and walked over to stand in front of me with his taller-than-me-ness. "May I see?"

I shrugged and held up my hand, rolling back my sleeve to reveal the spiraling design on my palm, wrapping around my wrist and maybe three inches up my arm.

His eyes widened a bit.

"What? Have you people never seen a rider before?" I really hated that look of surprise on people's faces like I was some kind of freak.

"The fall of the riders came before my time. You are the first in many decades. So, to answer your question simply, no, I have not, but I have heard what the gedwey ignasia is supposed to look like, and this is definitely not it."

"Oh, and what is my hand supposed to look like? Since, you seem to know everything there is to know about dragons and riders. But, oh, wait, I thought not thirty seconds ago, you said you have never seen a rider. Met one, known one, been within the same freaking lifespan of one."

He ignored me and my pissed-off-ness at his attempt to say he, of all people, knew more of riders than myself, who, oh look, just so happens to be one. Instead, he said "They should be a small circle-based mark just under the thumb, very simple. Nothing this large or intricate."

"Oh, gee, sorry my abnormal hand has bothered your set ideas. Shall I go fix it with my magic to accommodate your narrow-mindedness?"

He glanced up, away from my palm, and I finally saw a flash of anger in his eyes. "I am not narrow-minded. I was commenting on this because it defies what people know about riders. And I would thank you to stop speaking in that manner and tone in the presence of your leader."

"My... what?" I could not believe what was coming out of this guy's mouth every second.

"Your leader, king, whatever along those general lines."

I laughed out of incredulousness and next to me Vanyali snarled.

"Why do you find everything I say so amusing?" He didn't seem to find anything I said or did amusing anymore. Now it was all cold, unfeeling leader of the Varden.

"Well, that would imply that I am bound by some oath to listen to you and do what you say, and I must do no such thing."

"You are the first rider in ages, the only chance we have of defeating Galbatorix! Don't tell me you are loyal to him!" He spat the last word as though there had been some disgusting taste in his mouth.

"Oh, relax, take a chill pill, and take. A. Seat." Vanyali growled toward him and he obliged, going back behind his desk, though he did not look happy about it. Maybe Vanyali was as scary as she thought herself. I continued, "I am not loyal to King Crazy, and I sure as hell am not going to give you any support anytime soon. I don't really know who I'm loyal to, except myself. And Vanyali. Actually, all I really know is who I'm not loyal to. That just so happens to be the-royal-pain-in-my-ass. So, we are on the same side. Just know I don't do orders. Requests are fine however. I make no guarantees on followthrough."

He took a moment to digest this, then said slowly, "So there is no chance of you swearing fealty to myself or the Varden?"

"Not in hell. You know, next time you might want to be a little nicer and, oh, I don't know, maybe even consider being hospitable." I clapped my hand over my mouth and widened my eyes in mock horror, faking a gasp, "Oh, no, the horror of such an idea!"

Vanyali snickered and then asked, so that everyone could hear, _Okay, well, I for one am starving, and since you don't seem to have a single good comeback in you, what was your name again? Oh, right, Ajihad. You know you aren't very memorable. You might want to work on that. As I was saying, I want to eat. Now. And you will feed me one way or another. I don't care if you are the meal yourself, I'm not picky._

_Oh, she is not kidding, I can assure you._ I added, not feeling like taking the time to speak out loud, and Ajihad looked as though he hadn't expected it.

Then, recovering, he said "Well, I will call one of the dwarves to show you where you can eat, and you may sleep in the dragon loft, which is above the main room. You will have to walk up since you can't fly." Then, catching a ferocious glare from Lili, he added, "Yet."

She bared her teeth in her version of a smile of satisfaction and when our dwarf guide came, we followed him out to the place where we were supposed to eat.


	29. Chapter 29

Above the giant stone with its eerie glow, in the dragon loft, Vanyali and I sat in our own stone room. Aramae was somewhere down the insanely long staircase because she claimed she didn't like heights. Unsure of whether I believed her, I let it go, but I kept the other two eggs with me. I wasn't going to risk anything. Earlier, she had wanted to tell Ajihad about them, because apparently that had been her entire mission. We got in a huge argument over the matter in which I made some particularly nasty threats and finally she said that she would not tell him right away, provided she was allowed to tell him of their existence. Grudgingly, I agreed, but made it excruciatingly clear that she wasn't allowed to give anything that could be interpreted as a hint at a hint by anyone. I spent the next hour detailing to her what exactly she could and could not say, but mostly what she couldn't, as we ate our dinner of some sort of bird and some liquor. That was interesting, to me at least. I made sure not to get too drunk since I knew generally what my limit was on drinks. I mean, even though it wasn't technically legal, I had been drunk before. As in totally wasted, calling people in the middle of the night, intense hangover wasted before. It was fun, and at the same time not so much. Well, I overestimated the number I could have, and Lili just plain didn't care, so she was worse than me. Only Aramae had remained totally sober so when Ajihad sought her out again later to ask about her 'secret' mission, her tongue wasn't loosened by the drinks we had been downing like crazy. But I didn't trust her enough to have the eggs herself, just as I didn't trust Ajihad. It was nothing personal, I just had trust issues.

So, as Vanyali and I lay on the floor of our room, world spinning around us, laughing hysterically at something neither of us could remember at this point, the knock on our door was quite unexpected. I assumed it was some ungodly hour in the morning that no one would want to be awake at.

In my complete and utter drunkenness I never suspected anything bad to be at the door, nothing of interest. I just thought it would be Aramae, so I didn't even bother to reach out with my mind to see who it was.

I laughed as I pulled open the door, slurring some sort of greeting and half-yelling at the person I had previously believed to be Aramae when it finally registered, somehow, in some part of my brain that was not totally consumed by drunken stupor, that this person was not Aramae. Maybe it was the height, or the blonde hair, but then again it might just have been the reason I gave the woman at the door as I wrinkled my nose and said, "Waaai', youuuu're no' Ariri. You're too oooold"

Her eyes widened ever so slightly as she asked in a very offended tone, "Excuse me? I beg your pardon, but did you just call me old?"

"Yeah, so Ithink...that...you should tell me...who you are...so I don't have to..." I paused every few seconds and slurred a lot, but even through all of that I was pretty sure she could understand. At least, she looked like it. At this point I turned to Vanyali and asked, "What woul' I do again?"

She hiccuped then I heard _Tell her you'll do something really mean like pull her hair._ Then she snickered at it like it was a joke, and I will admit, I giggled a bit as well.

I turned back to the blonde woman who was looking at us with confusion, attempted, and nearly failed, dignity, and possibly a hint of annoyance. I said, "Yeah, wha' she said." Then I had to grip the wall as a wave of dizziness hit me. It didn't work and I found myself on my butt the next second later.

Ignoring that, the blonde stared down at me and introduced herself, "Hello rider, my name is Trianna. I am the head of Du Vrangr Gata."

I frowned up at her, "And that is?" God this stupid candle light hurt. It made me have to squint. Why couldn't some of it go away?

Without thinking, I reached for the magic, which was a very difficult thing since, you know, I was drunk. Then I commanded it with the words, "Geuloth du garjzla." And with that the lights dimmed to a reasonable level for me where I no longer had to squint.

Her eyes grew wider, and I thought for a second that they might fall out of her head. That made me laugh again, as she asked, "How did you do that?"

"Easy. I called th' magic 'n it came 'n then I told i' what I wanted."

"But you're intoxicated! You shouldn't be able to do that!"

"Oh, wonderful, more of you people telling me what I'm like. Well guess what, I'm not, so get over it and if that's all you wanna say, then goodbye."

She shook her head a bit as though to clear it, then managed some form of speech, "No, umm, I'm here on behalf of Du Vrangr Gata. We are the group of magicians at the Varden and help them. We would like you to join. It would benefit us greatly to have someone with your magical abilities with us."

"Look...Wha' was your name again?"

She looked offended as she said, "Trianna."

"Right, okay, so look, while I'm...okay I'm not really flattered at all. I'm just here and that's it, I don't wanna do anything or be part of anything that I have to obey and whatnot. So you can go back to your Ringy Gato whatever and tell them, nope, not interested. Okay? Okay." I started to shove her out the door when Vanyali piped up. I was mildly surprised she had been so quiet this whole time.

_Cali, ask her...bout those mean bald losers. She knows thems 'n I thinks she's workin' for dem._

I rounded on Trianna, "You work for those lowlife pieces of crap?"

"I work for no one!"

"Uhuh, well Lili says you work for those ugly twin thingies 'n I don't like them and therefore I don't like you." I started to throw her out the door as violently as I could but she said something I couldn't quite understand in the Ancient Language and it felt as though someone had punched me in the gut. Vanyali snarled and ran at her, grabbing hold of Trianna's ankle with her razor-sharp teeth just as Trianna was saying something about breaking in the Ancient Language. She shrieked and Lili but a little harder, then let go. She moved back a bit, and growled, but when Trianna failed to move, she went for her hand, snapping her jaws just short as Trianna fled.

Then she sat down, licking her lips. _Blood is yummy, Cali, I think it'sss better than aaaaall that stuff we had downstairs._

_You're crazy._ I rolled my eyes at her.

_Yeah, well you're inebriated._

_What'd I tell you 'bout digging around in my head. And yes, I'm am aware of that. And you are too._

_Yes. Can you make the world stop going around and around and around and..._

_No. I can't, so stop saying that. You're making me even more dizzy._

_Spinny spinny spinny spinny spinny spinny...more spinny!_

_Gah!_ I launched myself at her, but my vision, having very little real perception, made me miss where she really was and she laughed.

So, I stuck my tongue out at her, and she copied.

_Monkey see, monkey do._ I told her.

_You just called me a monkey, didn't you?_

_Yeah, pretty much._

She jumped onto my stomach and her weight made it impossible to breathe, not to mention really, really painful.

_OW! Lili get off!_

_No._

_Right now!_

_Take it back!_

_No!_

_Then I'm not moving. _She curled up as if she were going to sleep.

_Okay, okay! You're not a monkey, you're an adorable, scary, heavy little dragon who feels like a ton of bricks! Now off!_

_No, I don't think I shall. This is quite comfy._

I flashed her what would have been a death glare had I not been so terribly drunk and, with much effort, succeeded in rolling over, dumping her off and onto the ground.

She tried to stand up and resume a similar position, but suddenly became aware of her exhaustion and fell over, instantly falling asleep. I wasn't too far behind.


	30. Chapter 30

Ouch.

My first thought upon waking the next morning. That was it. All I could think, that one word. Ouch. But what can you expect from someone with a major hangover? Nothing more, nothing less. I mean, I suppose you could expect them to stay in bed all day, or to whine and complain to everyone they saw, but not me. Of course, both Lili and I were quite irritable, don't get me wrong, but it wasn't whiny. Like when we saw Aramae the next morning and she laughed at us, Lili and I had looked at each other through squinted eyes to keep the light away, then after an unspoken suggestion from Vanyali, I'd tipped Aramae off of her seat and put my boot on her chest to keep her there while we ate. I had seriously considered moving it to her mouth because of her constant, and very loud, griping, but then she would just complain at me the rest of the day for getting tunnel dirt in her mouth, and I didn't want to deal with that either.

_I wanna go beat someone up._ Vanyali's thoughts mirrored my own as we changed direction and asked a random dwarf where we could find somewhere to spar people. Anyone. We really weren't picky. So the dwarf had shown us and we were greeted by a whole lot of noise. Axes coming together, swords, people yelling, every sort of noise associated with fighting except for guns that you can think of.

_I should like to shoot someone sometime. Like right now._

_Lili! I told you not to find that sort of thing in my memories! Now you have to keep it secret. You can't talk about that or tell anyone._

_Oh, believe me, I couldn't even if I wanted to. I tried to tell some dwarf over there and he couldn't hear that part of my sentence. I guess it sort of got bleeped out or something. It was quite strange. I can speak to you about it, but no one else. I wonder why that is?_

_I have no idea Lili. Haha, maybe it's a sign._

_Of what?_

_That your brain is defective. _ I dodged out of the way of her sharp teeth, laughing despite the migraine I had thanks to too much alcohol the previous night. She glared, then stalked over to where some stones sat, probably for people to set their weapons while they took breaks. Before I could ask what she was doing, she hopped up on one, maybe three feet off the ground, and jumped while snapping her wings out. So, she was trying to fly. Interesting.

She managed to stay in the air for a few seconds with some really intense flapping before she fell. She ignored my attempt at hiding my laughter and got up to try again.

After a while I got bored of watching her try, though she was getting better, so I went to find someone to spar. I loved sparring, especially hand-to-hand.

Eventually I found a guy, not much older than myself, who said it would be his pleasure. It actually wasn't that difficult to find someone. Everyone wanted to spar the new dragon rider, even if they were scared to say it. I could see them hovering, and sensed what they were thinking, because I wanted to make sure that they were really having nice, friendly feelings of good, honest fighting, and not the oh-by-the-way-I-plan-to-snap-your-neck-when-your-head-is-turned type.

The guy was about six foot three, not hideous, with brown hair that Vanyali commented had a poo-esque tone to it.

_Thanks for that visual, Lili._

_Anytime._

_I shall think of it whenever I'm sad. I will hold it close to my heart._

_I expect nothing less._

She walked up to where we were squaring off, his friends cheering him on, and sat down to watch. The others gave her a wide berth, even wider when her head went to the level or their ankles. Apparently word of her little stunt with that creepy lady Trianna had gotten around this place.

_Nah. They just saw her bleeding ankle and assumed it was me._ She corrected.

Laughing, I ducked the guy's punch at my face, throwing one at his stomach. It didn't faze him much, except that he grunted then clipped my shoulder with his heel. I spun around to gain momentum, snapping a kick out at his face, quickly following with one at his chest. He had, of course, moved both hands up to guard his face, so the kick to his chest landed with a satisfying thud. He doubled over for a split second, then straightened just as fast, throwing blow after blow, which I blocked with relative ease. He finally managed to land one that hit me in the hip. Not the ideal location to hit someone, but it was a start, and had me hopping up and down for all of thirty seconds in an attempt to alleviate some of the pain.

_Wow. How did he get you that time? That has got to be the worst punch I have ever laid eyes on. You are seriously sucking today. _I glanced at her and she was flashing me that toothy smile that I found quite endearing, but that had everyone around her taking a very conscious, very large step away to add some distance between them and her teeth.

I narrowed my eyes and turned back to my opponent just in time to duck another punch and hit him in the stomach again. _Shut up Lili. I don't see you trying to fight anyone._

_That's because even if I wanted to no one would fight with me. They think I'll fight dirty, like bite them or something._

_That's because you would. And don't even try to lie to me. I know you too well, and I have the scars to prove it. _I blocked a few more kicks and punches, then started punching and kicking at him. I managed to snap him in the jaw a few times with my foot.

_Well if you hadn't insulted my eating habits then we wouldn't have been in that situation, would we?_

_Vanyali, I have never insulted your eating habits._

_Don't pick hairs with me._

I rolled my eyes as I swept the guys feet out from under him. _Lili, it's split hairs and nit pick._

_Like I said._

_I...whatever. This is a waste of my time._ I jumped and kicked the brown-haired guy in the side of the head. He staggered back and fell over. Well, I hadn't meant to knock him out, but hey, I'd go for it.

My head was really starting to kill me so I grabbed Lili who was still gloating about having beat me, since I didn't feel like explaining to her that there is no winning in a conversation, and we returned to the dining hall to get some water.


	31. Chapter 31

_Wow,_ I sent my thoughts to Vanyali who was sitting next to me, _That's just....wow._

_Those are my sentiments exactly._

_There are no other words for this._

_I would never have expected this from them. It is so-there are no words._

_Except wow._

_Yes, except wow._

_But come on. Really? This is what they do the whole time?_

_I don't understand why we were not allowed to come. This hardly what I would call official business._

_I know! I mean didn't they say that we wouldn't fit in, we wouldn't be able to help, we wouldn't know what to do._

_Yes, I believe that they did. They lied._

_Yeah, I know, I can totally drink tea as well as any of them! Even better than most! You could even drink it better than most of them._

_Yes, look at how that one slurps it and the other, how he spills as much as he drinks._

_And what about those pastry things? I think I am far more capable of eating them neatly than them! That guy keeps spilling everything in his beard!_

_It is like a beard storage unit. He probably has crumbs and dried drinks in there from every meal he has ever eaten, saving it for those times when there is a shortage._

_There's no shortage there. If he really does have that much food in there, cause that is one big beard, then he could feed an entire army!_

_Two._

_This is just not right! And I thought they were discussing important matters!_

_They told us they were discussing important matters! Like our eating habits! And whether they are going to let us stay!_

_And your little ankle-biting problem._

_I don't know what you're talking about._

_Uhuh, so you haven't caused eight people in the last week to need magical help healing from the original ankle-bitee?_

_It was eight?_

_Yep. Eight people who definitely did not deserve that._

_Yes they did._

_Okay then, which ones?_

_Well, that woman thought I was a doormat and tried to walk on me._

_Lili, you definitely did look like a doormat that day._

_Did not!_

_Um, you were passed out in the doorway drunk, sort of like a really puffy, mock-dragon doormat._

_A very good mock-dragon doormat. _I laughed at the tone of her thoughts.

_Yes, Lili, a very good imitation._

_Thank you. And you know, what was she even doing coming in our room anyway?_

_I have no idea. Maybe she wanted to see if you were real._

_Well she certainly found out._

I laughed. _Yeah, that she did. You know, you would think that she would have realized that such a large, lumpy doormat isn't actually a doormat._

_Hey!_

_If the shoe fits..._

_I have grown, haven't I?_

_It's taken you a month, but yeah, you have grown fairly substantially._

_I'm as tall as you now!_

_Mhm. Which begs the question, why haven't any of the tea-party-ers noticed us?_

_I...I don't know...wow, this plant must be bigger than I thought._

_Or they're too busy talking about whether or not fairies are real._

_They have the weirdest conversations I have ever heard._

_Right. So how do you want to mess up the party?_

_What do you mean?_

_Well we have to get them to do what they told us the were going to do. And they can't exactly do anything to a dragon and rider, now can they?_

_No._

_And if worst comes to worst, you can always bit their ankles._ I grinned.

She growled, _I'm big enough to do a little better than that now._

_Oh, sorry, you can chow down on their calves._

_Try missing ears._

Laughing, I said, _I knew there was a reason you were my dragon._

_And I knew there was a reason I chose you. Now what should we do?_

_Okay, first, we..._


	32. Chapter 32

_You know, in retrospect, Lili, I'm not sure that was such a good idea._

_I am afraid I must agree with you._

It really did seem like a bad idea considering we were stuck sitting in some stupid cave under armed guard while the council, which included Ajihad, continued their so-called business. We kind of had interrupted their little tea party, but all we had wanted was to make sure that they were actually working. It wasn't such a horrible thing to want, was it? And now we couldn't even do that. We just had to trust in them to be working, and they really did not have my trust. Yep, there was no trust there, not after we had caught them having a tea party when they were supposed to be discussing their important matters.

"Can we go now?" I complained to the guard. He was fairly tall, towering over me in my sitting position, and he glared at me like he could not believe they had stuck him with babysitting detail, like he was above it all.

His voice when he answered was devoid of the emotion present on his face, "You can leave when they finish."

"Yeah, yeah, heard that all before, but I've been here..." I paused, unable to think of just how long we had been forced to sit here, doing absolutely nothing.

_Six hours._ Vanyali said, helping me.

"Yeah, six hours. We've been here six straight hours and they haven't finished and I'm hungry and I want something to drink and my butt is starting to hurt and so help me if you don't let us go right now I will take you out at the knees."

He grinned down at me. "Uhuh, and just how do you plan on doing that? You don't have any weapons."

"Ah, and there is where you people all go wrong, you see, even though you did take my sword, and my bow, and the daggers in my boots, and all that other stuff I had with me, you still haven't thought of the one thing you can't take away from me, which happens to be the most potent of them all." I stared him straight in the eye with pure defiance and watched satisfied as he took an involuntary step back, still looking as arrogant as ever.

"And what might that be?" He sneered.

"Oh, I dunno, magic maybe?" I smiled one of my more scary smiles and had the satisfaction of seeing his smirk waver.

"You can' use magic. Only the wretched King Galba'orix an' a few choice spell-casters can. An' you wouldn' 'ave been chosen to be dat special. Ajihad says dat dere is a council meeting wot decides 'oo gets magic an' 'oo don't an' 'e said dat the last council gave it to Galba'orix cause he weren't all evil back den an' now 'e is so they fired dem all. And Ajihad wouldn' give no miscreant like yourself any o' dat magic." The other guard piped up.

I gave him one of those you-are-a-mental-person looks and said, "Are you like out of Pirates of the Caribbean or something? Cause that was definitely one of those illiterate-pirate accents."

"Wot's 'at?" He looked confused for a few moments, then all of a sudden looked as though something had just dawned on him, " 'Ay! Is you insultin' my way o' speechifyin'"

"Yes, I believe I was."

"Why you li'l-" He began, but Vanyali had smacked him in the stomach with her tail.

I glanced at her, and she blinked innocently. _What was I supposed to do? I didn't like the word he was thinking and you made me promise not to bite anyone for a week._

_I know and I am seriously starting to regret that decision._

_See? This is what happens when you attempt to limit me._

_So why don't you do it anyway?_

_Because I am a dragon of my word._

_Since when?_

_Since you made me promise._

_I've made you promise things before and you never listen! What makes now any different?_

_I have a problem and I have finally realized it and am trying to rectify it, okay? Why can't you just be happy for me?! Can't we just get on with the breaking of their pathetic knees already?_

I frowned at her but said nothing as I turned to the guards, held up my hand so that they could see my Gedwey Ignasia, and said "Alright, but don't say I didn't warn you. Jierda-" As soon as my palm began to glow, the two exchanged a look before they ran for their lives screaming like the little girls I knew they were at heart.

Laughing, Lili and I stood and began to make our way to the room where the council was convened, and after a quick food stop, we burst through the door. They were just a little freaked out when I had my palm out to show my slightly glowing palm, because I had told it to do that, as it required less energy to make that glow and have Vanyali kick down the door than to do it myself with magic. Of course they didn't need to know that.

Ajihad was the first to recover and look incredibly outraged. "What is this?!" He roared, "Where are the guards who were supposed to be watching you two?"

I shrugged, "They got scared cause I said I was going to break their knees with magic and ran away screaming. So, the answer to your question is I have no idea try somewhere in that general direction." I indicated out the door with a flick of my wrist.

"You tried to do what?" He yelled.

"Well, let's see, I tried to escape a few times, I tried to convince them to let me go, I tried to annoy them into letting me go, I tried, and succeeded, in scaring them to let me go. Anything else?"

"You said you tried to use magic on them!"

"If I had tried, I would have. End of story."

"You do realize that convincing me is the only hope you have of staying with the Varden, correct?"

"What if I don't want to?"

"Because you would be nothing without us. Nothing!" He stood up abruptly out of pure anger.

"Really? Cause I'm pretty sure that I was someone before I came."

"No! You were nothing. You have nothing. You are nothing!" I could actually see the spit flying from his mouth.

"So, I don't have a dragon?"

"No. We claim the beast as ours."

I raised my eyebrows in shock that he would say something like that. Next to me, Vanyali snarled and I knew she was way on the verge of breaking her earlier promise.

"Dude. Big mistake."

Vanyali lunged for him, but some guard jumped in front of him at the last second and she crashed into the unfortunate guy, teeth sinking deep into his shoulder.

_Lili! Enough!_ It got her attention and I saw her begin to reluctantly relinquish her grasp on the guard while he screamed in agony, everyone else in the room frozen in place from the shock of it. Finally after what seemed to me to be an eternity, though it was probably only minutes, she returned to my side, still growling at Ajihad, but showing better restraint.

"Can you not control your dragon?"

Good, he realized what his mistake had been and learned from it. Maybe this guy wasn't hopeless after all.

"Umm, no. I can give her suggestions and stuff, but basically she's like a really loyal best friend. No, more like a twin sister. So, no, I can't 'control' her. Not to mention she's a dragon, with a name might I add, and definitely not a beast, and she can speak to you, but that is an honor which has not been bestowed upon you because, frankly, you are an ass. So fix it, cause I really don't like to hate people, but you are seriously testing the limits of that dislike. And, honestly, I don't need you people. Sure, I might want to stay here even though it's... totally gross. But I will leave if you can't show both of us some respect."

"You don't show me any respect, why should I show you any?"

"Because respect is earned and when people respect me, I tend to respect them."

"But you have been disrespectful since you got here."

"And you have been inhospitable since we got here."

"Have not."

I rolled my eyes, but chose not to dignify that with a response, so I said, "So what's it going to be? Am I leaving or staying?"


	33. Chapter 33

"Okay, no, wait, I want to get some things straight. So, everyone in the Varden respects you, says you are a fair person, nice even, except me. So there is obviously something wrong with me, and I want to know what. I mean, is it some personal problem? Or do you hate me for some other reason?" I demanded.

"Because..." He frowned, as if trying to think of an answer, "Well, I'm not actually sure."

"So you hate me just because?"

He blinked, like he was trying to clear his mind, "I'm not...sure...I can't...I can't focus. I don't know. I don't...think....I don't think I do."

It was my turn to frown now. "What do you mean you don't know?"

"It's as though I can see that the answer is there, what's going on, but it's hazy, like it is behind a veil." He looked me in the eye and I would say he almost looked...vulnerable. "It has been happening so much lately and I have no idea why."

"When did it start?" I asked.

"A few months ago. When-" And he passed out.

I glanced up to see the stunned and confused looks of the members of the council.

"Has this same sensation been happening to any of you?" I asked them.

They glanced at one another, until the first, a man I knew by the name of Jormundur, spoke. "Yes. It has. To myself, at least, and I know also that it has happened to some of the people."

"What did they tell you. I don't remember really," His face took on a look of pure concentration, "They were saying something about a man who came here named-" And then he passed out. How wonderful. I guess if any of them got too close they just passed out.

"And to any of you?" They looked nervously between the two men on the ground and me. I rolled my eyes, "You don't have to say anything, just raise your hands if the answer is yes, and leave it down if it's a no."

They hesitated before nodding.

"Okay. Has what they described been happening to you?"

After a slight pause, all hands of the council slowly went up.

"That's a start. Now raise your hands if you remember when it started."

Again, all hands.

_Do you have any idea what you are doing?_ Lili asked from beside me.

_Not a clue. I figure I'll keep asking random questions until I either get enough information to...well, I don't know what I'll do. I guess I'll try to find them. Or maybe I'll get help and then try to find him. Okay, well, either that, or I'll see how close I can get before they all pass out._

_Sounds good to me. Now ask them about generally when it started._

"Raise your hand if it started one month ago." No hands.

"Two months?"

No hands again.

"Three?"

One hand, from a boy scurrying around the room collecting cups and plates from in front of the council members.

"Four?"

Two hands from the guards.

"Five?"

The hands of all of the members of the council went up.

_Now that we know the general time frame, ask them if any of them know anything about the man, maybe what he looks like, smells like, anything at all._

I reiterated her words and after a few uncertain looks were exchanged, everyone's hands went into the air again.

_Maybe they can get around whatever causes them to pass out if they just write it down instead of saying it._

_It's worth a try._

Out loud I said, "Okay, now we want to try something. I want you all to write down whatever you know, or can remember at least, about the man in question. Can you do that?"

They nodded slowly and the boy who had previously been retrieving plates now went to get some things with which to write and to write on. He placed them in front of each of the people present, then kept one set for himself and everyone began writing as fast as they could, trying to get things out of their heads. They wrote with such a fast pace that you would have thought that was their form of breathing. Eventually, one by one, at varying intervals, they passed out.

I walked around and collected the papers, each of which held a fair amount of information, or at least writing. Then Lili and I left the room to run and find someone who could help them.

After at least an hour of trying to navigate the tunnels we found someone who said they would get the healers to go look after them and we moved on, searching for Aramae. At last we found her eating in the mess hall, chatting happily away with a dwarf.

"Aramae!" I called.

She turned around, smiling, and waved, until she caught the looks on our faces, and her smile faded.

"What happened?" She stood slowly and walked closer.

Glancing around, I said "Let's go somewhere else, I have to tell you something, and it's really bad news."

Nodding her head in acknowledgement, she turned, said she would see her friend later, and told us to follow her, which we did, down a tunnel, and another, and many more after that, until finally we reached a secluded cave.

She whirled around to face us, "Okay, talk."


	34. Chapter 34

I took a deep, drawn out breath, then said, "Okay, so," I drew out the 'so' as long as possible, which was as long as that deep breath lasted me, debating about where to begin, and I decided to start at the beginning, "Okay, you know how the people here have been really mean and stuff? Wait-" I paused as the thought that she might have been affected by whatever had happened suddenly flew into my head, "How long ago did you go into the King's castle?"

"About a year ago. Why?"

"Okay, then never mind, I just needed to make sure that the same thing getting to all these people wasn't eating away at your brain too. Anyway, apparently some guy came here and put a spell on their minds so that- well, I'm not really all that sure why, but it makes them pass out if they get too close to remembering who he is, and it sort of controls them and makes them all mean and nasty. It also affects their memories so they have trouble remembering things." I held up the pieces of paper that I had gotten them to write on, "This is all that they could recall and write down about the man before the spell or whatever made them pass out as well. I'm not sure what's on them, we came to get you as you seem to be the only person aside from us who isn't affected."

She nodded slowly, trying to digest the new information for a minute or two.

After a while Vanyali got a little bit bored and said, _Okay, people, this tunnel is nice and all, but can we go back to our room and sort all of this out before the infamous man-with-no-name comes after us?_

Y_eah, sure_. I returned, and we all headed back to the room where we shut the door and went to the very back, sitting down on the bed, and we divided up the papers.

_R__ead them out loud, please. I don't have opposable thumbs, you know._

Aramae and I laughed and she decided to start, choosing a paper from a person whose penmanship could easily be compared with that of a drunk chicken, "'I remember that the man came up to me and said something weird and I laughed because it sounded funny. He smelled like-' Can you read this? I'm sorry, but there is a point at which I can't translate this anymore." She pointed to a particularly illegible word on the paper and I struggled to find a word that might potentially match that set of marks.

"Does it say.......'Rocks'?" I asked finally.

"I...Yes, I think it does." She replied.

"Oh well that really helps us. This whole place is made of stone and gems. What else does it say?"

She looked back at the paper and continued reading, "'He smelled like rocks and I think I saw something sort of green on his shirt.'" She placed it next to herself, on the ground, and looked at me, "Well, that was useless."

_Not necessarily. The strange thing that the writer refers to could have been something in the Ancient Language, which means that the man could have been using magic on these people._

"Good point, Lili. Okay," I grabbed another sheet of paper that held far more legible writing, "This one says 'I seem to recall, about five months past, a strange occurrence where we held a meeting of the council and I could not find a seat because another man was seated there. He got out of the chair then and before I fell asleep I saw a dark beard and-' Well that's where this one passed out. This supports my theory that the man used magic on the people. My only question is, the level and strength this would require is far beyond anything that a human could stand. I didn't even know it was possible. Vilfaedin, remember the instructor I had back at the castle? Well he told me that mind control was virtually impossible, so I don't even know how this is possible."

"I do not know. I never had much instruction on magic so I am not the correct person to ask."

"Whatever, let's just focus on finding this guy and then we can figure out how he did it later."

"Alright." She selected another and started to read that one aloud. Twenty minutes later we had a fair list of facts about the man. The dark beard had been in one other and the strange words had been fairly consistent. One of them had given us more on the strange green idea except this time it was on the face and a wonderful defining feature given to us in the form of a dagger with a pommel shaped like fire and containing a ruby in the center of the flame that held a great resemblance to a drop of blood.

"This is so strange." Aramae shook her head, "I never imagined that this could happen to the Varden. Galbatorix doesn't even know where this place is! Otherwise he would have laid siege to it long ago. I don't understand!"

"Neither do I but we should probably find this guy before he realizes that we know about him and have a chance at finding him. Whatever he did must be wearing off a bit. Or...well I'm not sure exactly what he did in the first place...Anyway, let's just go find him."


	35. Chapter 35

Okay, this was definitely not how I had envisioned catching our mystery man, or Vidmar as we had found out he was called. Well, I had figured that we would probably just surprise him, interrogate him to see how he got in since the twins checked everyone's minds so thoroughly that they might fry someone who had a passing thought of anger at the rudeness, and then proceed from there, probably meaning locking him up and turning him over to Ajihad for whatever he might decide. It only seemed fair, considering he had been messing with the man's mind for months. Of course, it could never be so simple, especially not in my life. When we had burst into his little room, we had found tons of strange concoctions and books, like a mad scientist's lab without all of the modern technology. Anyway, turned out that he had been at lunch, just returning at that particular, and very inopportune, moment, and had found a nice surprise in the form of a very enraged Vanyali tearing the place apart all on her own because she insisted that he must be there hiding. The rest of us, that is myself, Aramae, the Twins, and Ajihad, stood there watching her and debating what we should do next. We had spent the previous month and a half trying to find out everything possible about Vidmar, or the mysterious man as he had been then, and we had nearly given up hope when about a week ago Lili and I had been flying up to the dragon hold, since now not only could she fly herself up, but myself as well, when I had spotted, just out of the corner of my eye, something gold with something red in the middle. After telling Lili to slow down a bit, I got a better look and sure enough it was the dagger we were supposed to be looking for. Sadly, he got of the never ending stairs and I needed sleep though I did memorize which hallway he went down. So Aramae and I staked out that hallway and we eventually figured out his room after nearly an entire week of some really intense stalking. The next day we had grabbed Ajihad, who had finally broken through his mental blocks, though he had some major memory loss, and went to his room where we didn't were five minutes to early. Luckily we saw him at the same time he turned and ran and, though the twins refused to chase, we rushed through the maze of tunnels after him. Vanyali split of to wait in the center of Tronjheim and Ajihad left to loop around and see if he could cut Vidmar off. That left Aramae and I chasing after him in the endless tunnels, with all of their twists and turns.

_Lili? Can you see him yet? We're just going back into the main chamber._

_Not yet. What level?_

_I don't know! I think we went down! Maybe?_

_Okay, going down, I don't see-wait! I see him!_

Just as we rounded a corner to see the central chamber we saw Lili swoop down in front of him and watched as he jerked his dagger from his side as though to defend himself. His efforts proved futile as I knew that they would and he was plucked off the ground like a falcon grabs a mouse.

Lili surged upward, her powerful wings beating as she dragged him quite literally kicking and screaming to the dragon hold where Aramae and I raced to meet her.

Finally, panting, we made it to the top. Well, I was panting, but what else can you expect? I was not the most fit person in the world, and I hadn't been when I was back with my real family. Sure, I had run every day for like a mile but that really didn't improve your stamina. Living in Tronjheim for about two months definitely did.

Vanyali sat at the top with her catch on the ground pinned under her paw. She growled deep in her throat and he struggled harder. She chuckled, although for her the sound was like stones grating against one another and he started screaming, "I don't want to die! I don't want to die!"

Aramae and I looked at each other and then burst out laughing. So this was the powerful man who had somehow messed with the mind of every person in Tronjheim. He was small and stick thin with absolutely no trace of muscle on him. His features were oddly birdlike in a very not-so-good way. His eyes were a watery sort of green, like dying moss that hadn't turned brown, but a sad sort of green. Not vibrant in any way. He dressed in fancy attire in golds and browns and reds like dried blood. His hair was mousy looking, as in the mouse that got beaten up by all of the other little mice.

Aramae finally managed to stop laughing long enough to choke out, "Have to...go....find Ajihad....and....the Twins." With that she turned and ran in the opposite direction, laughter echoing off the walls after her.

I watched for a few seconds, trying to contain my own laughter. When I thought I had it under control, I turned around and had to fight to maintain that control, though on the inside I was in hysterics.

I breathed in deeply, shut my eyes, and as I reopened them I walked toward our new captive trying to look as menacing as possible. Turns out it worked because he actually started quaking in fear of me. More so than he already had been.

"Mr. Vidmar", I drew out every syllable, attempting to sound menacing as well. He flinched. Good. I was either really scary or he was just a total wimp, "What are you doing here?"

"Wh-where?"

I rolled my eyes, "The Varden, you idiot!"

"Oh. That. Well, um, you see," He squeaked out nervously. And I mean that literally. He sounded just as mousy as he looked.

"No, I don't see", I cut him off impatiently and he cringed, "I want an answer or I'm going to stop telling my dragon not to gouge your eyes out. So please, answer the question."

He squeaked, really and truly squeaked, in fear.

"I was sent by the King to get the traitors to become foolish and disorganized!" He said it in such a rush that I missed half of the words and Lili had to repeat them for me.

"Okay, so, how did you do that?"

"I just-"Suddenly he heaved in a breath, or tried to at least, and his eyes rolled back into his head as foam frothed from his mouth. His back arched and Vanyali leaped away from him, snarling.

He continued to writhe on the ground as the foam become pinkish in its tint, then red. He screamed an earsplitting cry and his hands reached up to his face. He began to claw at his face furiously, creating bloody furrows.

I looked on in disgust, and I was sure I heard footsteps behind me followed by sounds of someone heaving all over the ground. Vaguely, I figured that someone would have to clean that up. What would happen to the mess that Vidmar was making? Would some poor person have to deal with that to?

It reminded me a bit of a seizure, at least until his eyes began to swell and his screams were drowned out by fluid filling his lungs. I guessed as much from the volume of the foam spewing from his mouth along with an alarming amount of blood now flowing forth with it. The clawing increased in ferocity and his eyes suddenly exploded. They went everywhere, the bits and pieces. More heaving from behind me, then the foam went away totally as blood poured forth in massive amounts and he continued writhing and scratching. He was moving slower and looking even paler than when he had first seen Lili tearing apart his room or when she had flown to the Dragon Hold with him clutched in her talons. Finally, after a few more agonizing seconds, he stopped, just stopped moving. There was nothing left but the disgusting, ripped up corpse, and a sickening mess surrounding him. It was pure gore.

Still in shock, and shaking slightly, I turned around slowly, to face the twins, who I noticed were still muttering in the Ancient Language. Then it hit me-they had killed him. They had done that, made him experience that agony and torture. Not that I didn't despise him, but no one deserved to have to endure that.

"You-You idiots!" I choked out after some struggling to find my voice.

They looked at me with expressions that were smug, which they were trying to conceal under confusion.

"What do you mean?" The one on the left inquired.

"What did you just do? And do NOT lie to me because I know you killed him." I snarled.

Ajihad and Aramae looked confused for a second, then turned and glared at them in outrage. I was actually starting to like the man. He was essentially good, a trustworthy leader and I now found myself respecting him.

"You did WHAT?" He screamed at them, his tone mirroring the livid expression on his face.

"We thought that was what you wanted!" The right Twin said defensively.

"We wanted to interrogate him! We thought we could glean some information from him about Galbatorix' plans! And you blundering fools just destroyed that all! Not to mention you did not have to create such a graphic display!"

Left Twin smirked ever so slightly, "We admit that it was a bit unnecessary, however we believed that he deserved it after worming his way into so many people's minds. It was not right and he got what he rightfully deserved."

"That was for me to decide, not you! Now clean up your mess", He swept hand toward the corpse, "And you two! Three! Follow me!" He barked. Aramae and I glanced at one another.

_Come, younglings!_ Vanyali called to us mentally as she walked past, claws tapping the marble floor. We followed, we had no idea what else to do.

Ajihad went all the way to his study, then began to pace uneasily. We waited in silence until he spoke, "I need to know what he said."

"Just that he worked for Galbatorix."

"I see. This is going to be a problem. We were unable to discern his intentions, which is a problem."

"Actually, he said that they wanted the Varden in disarray."

"Oh. All right. But why? How?"

"He was about to tell me when he...died" An uncomfortable silence followed.

Finally he looked up, "Well, you should go eat. Let me know if you find anything"

Dismissed, we walked through the double doors and went to the dining hall in silence. None of us wanted to discuss the events that had transpired.

Vanyali was the first to break the silence. _So._

"So." Aramae said, staring at a piece of bread she was slowly picking to pieces with her fingers.

"Well I'm not going to say so," I paused, "Damn it! I just said it."

They laughed in spite of themselves, then sobered again.

_Do you think that he really would have told us what had happened, his methods, all of his reasoning?_

"Honestly? No. I think that he would have skirted the questions as much as possible. For all we know that was planned. I would rather not speculate." I shut my eyes. The scene kept replaying in my mind, the terrible gurggling sounds haunting me. I smacked my fists onto the table making Aramae jump.

"What is it?"

"I can't stay here anymore. I just can't do it. There is too much pain and drama for me."

"Where do you want to go? This is the Varden. They are the opposition. You won't do much good anywhere else."

"I used to dream of an elf girl. I want to go find her. She was being held in a jail somewhere in the empire. She sent a dragon egg somewhere. I haven't had a dream about her or the egg in a while but I get this feeling that she's still in trouble."

_Wherever you go, little one, I will go with you._

I smiled wryly, _Yeah, you can call me that now, you're so much bigger than me._

She smiled in her dragon way and Aramae looked me in the eye for a moment before saying, "No."

"What do you mean no?"

"I can't go. My place is here. I have to stay. I follow Ajihad's command and I also have to protect the people here. Seeing this man shows me that I am needed here more than ever. I'm sorry, but if you choose to go, you will be on your own."

I nodded sadly, then, "Lili and I are going to pack. If you change your mind, well, you know where to find us. We leave in two days."

Without another word we got up from the table and returned to the Dragon Hold, not in a happy mood at all.


	36. Chapter 36

Packing was fairly easy. Vanyali and I didn't have much to take. I had some clothes, my bow and sword, the eggs, and some jewelry. When the two days had gone by, Lili and I grabbed our things and I hopped onto her back, holding on tightly to the spike in front of me. She dove from the ledge and whipped out her wings, flying to where Ajihad, who was none to happy about the departure but accepted it nonetheless, and others would be waiting. This would also be when we would discover whether or not Aramae had changed her mind. I figured not, but there was always hope, or so Vanyali said.

She landed very gracefully in the middle of a large crowd which had gathered. Somehow news had spread of their departure. Rapidly. Glancing around, I was able to pick out Ajihad, the Twins, the Council members, some dwarves I had played drinking games with, and Aramae, who unfortunately, I noted, had no bags. With a twinge of regret, Lili and I bid everyone farewell and she turned and trotted down through the maze of tunnels to reach the exit. At first the crowd seemed to try to keep us there because they refused to move and kept yelling at us to stay, but when they realized that the large dragon in front of them had every intention to keep moving whether or not they happened to be there, they quickly scrambled out of the way.

As soon as we were clear of the mountain, Vanyali leaped into the air. It was the middle of winter, so in general it was very cold, but way up in the air where Lili liked to fly, it was beyond frigid. I had to tell her that she wasn't allowed to fly up here for too long or I might very well become a human icicle. She liked to push that time limit.

We tried to stay hidden as much as possible, flying mostly during the night and finding caves to sleep in during the day. It wasn't the most comfortable and it wasn't very warm. I tended to sleep next to Vanyali who covered me with a wing, much like a tent. It helped with the heat issue. We followed a river as a guide and food didn't prove much of a problem. The fish in the river made wonderful practice for shooting arrows and that killed two birds with one stone as I was far more compelled to actually hit them. Whatever I killed I could eat and if I failed to kill anything, I didn't. It was simple. Well, in theory. I ate most nights, but there were still those select few where things didn't work out according to plan.

One day, as we finally passed out of the mountains and could see none save behind us, Lili asked me, _Do you have any idea where the elf girl actually is?_

_Well, not really, umm...I was kind of relying on Aramae coming with us to tell us where to go._

_And do you even know where she is being held?_

_Not exactly..._

_Okay from now on I'm deciding where to go._

_Lovely. So where are we going then?_

_Wherever this river goes._

_Ooh. Can't wait._

_Do you have a better idea?_

I sighed, _Can't we just go from town to town and try to find her?_

_Oh, yes, good plan. I can see it now, people running in terror from me, screaming for their pathetic little lives, and the soldiers who will come to capture us because now not only are you Galbatorix' daughter, you are a rider, and you have the remaining dragon eggs, save the red one. Do you not comprehend the danger we would be in?_

_Fine. For now we will go with your plan and follow the river._

_Good, now I have a few other ideas which I intend to begin immediately. First, I vote more food, like deer. And I know that they are there and that you can shoot them so don't even try to get out of it. Second, I think that you should let me be your personal trainer. You lack motivation in that area and you know that your ability in magic is limited to your physical strength so that needs to be improved. Finally, I want to swim._

_I say maybe to the first, no to the second, and what are you talking about to the third._

_And I say that I really don't care. You have no choice about the first because it's either deer or you._

_Why don't you hunt the deer for yourself if you want them so much?_

_You need the practice, which brings me to our second point. You have no choice. I have very good ideas for motivating you. So, basically, now that I'm bigger than you, I get to make you do things, such as work out. So there. Deal with it. And as for the third..._And before I could stop her, she dipped and flew straight into the river below.

I screamed as the cold water engulfed me and I was plunged into the icy river. When she got back to the surface I threw myself off of her and crawled onto the bank, shivering. I do love the water, and I love swimming, but not when it will cause me to get hypothermia.

"Vanyali!" I yelled. Her large, purple head appeared above the water causing her to looke very crocodile-like.

_Yes, little one?_

"I n-need th-th-those b-bags. I h-h-have t-to change." Oh, great, my teeth were chattering now.

She snorted, _Has it not occurred to you that since the bags are in the water with me it would do you no good to attempt to wear anything from them as they are soaked through as well?_

I growled. "Get out of there before I freeze to death."

She grudgingly complied and I jumped onto her back because I figured that if she was flying, the air would dry my clothes faster, because, you know, moving air tends to do that. I was right and before long I was much warmer with my black hair whipping out behind me.

The days passed as Lili and I followed the river. She kept to her word that she was going to become my personal trainer and had me doing painful exercises lasting about two to three hours per day which left me exhausted. I was also getting much more flexible thanks to her deciding that it was a good idea. One day a large bird that looked quite a bit like a small dragon attacked us, but eventually we fought it off and we were alright. That is until I felt the pain that shot from my chest. Looking down, I found a large puncture in my left shoulder. Blood flowed from it in torrents and seconds later everything went black.

I assumed that the black meant I was dead. There was nothing, no light, no feeling, nothing. It was peaceful, and at the same time scary. If someone was there too long, they would probably go insane from it. I actually started to lose myself in it, the days, even minuted, immeasurable, when suddenly, there was sound. Next came pain. It was sharp because of the sensory deprivation of however long I had been asleep. My body went rigid. And then, as the pain dulled a bit and my body relaxed, there came awareness.

I was lying on a bed. It was quite comfortable, aside from the pain in my shoulder. Except for that slight itch on my face. I reached to scratch it. Or tried to at least. My arm refused to move. Well, something stopped it from moving. My eyes snapped open and I looked at that arm. Tied down, as was the other, and both of my legs. It was most definitely not good.

Looking around a bit more I saw people. No, they were not people. People couldn't look that pretty or graceful and they certainly didn't have pointy ears. These were elves. A lot of them, too. Oh, this was not good. It would be perfect that I was here except that they had me tied to a bed and that meant they didn't trust me, which was very bad.

I reached out with my mind, _Vanyali!_

_I am here._

I breathed a sigh of relief, _Where are you? _I paused, _Where am I?_

_You are in Ellesmera. I am as well, but they refuse to allow me to see you. I was very afraid for you. Are you alright? You were unconscious for a week. I brought you here when you first passed out. They healed you and told me that until they could search your mind to ascertain our intentions and alliances, we were their prisoners and to remain heavily guarded._

_Wonderful. Lili, what did you do with the eggs?_

_I hid them before we came here. There was no reason for them to know about them yet. They might have jumped to conclusions._

_Okay, that's good, now I guess I have to deal with them._

_You do, however is there anything you wish me to shield before they search your mind?_

_Yes. The whole bit about Galbatorix. That's something that I figure would be very, very bad if they found out about it._

_Alright. Good luck!_

I refocused my eyes on the elf in front of me. He was tall, with white blonde hair, and looked to be no more than in his mid-twenties. "Hello." I said as calmly as I could.

"What is your name?" He asked, his voice musical and yet uncertain and a little bit hostile.

"Katari. And may I inquire as to yours?"

He stared at me for a second, as if debating that, then, "I am Enari. You are a rider?"

"Yes."

"Will you permit me to search your mind, Rider Katari?"

I sighed, "If I must."

Then I felt a prick in my mind as he dug through my past. He did not cause undue pain, as had the Twins, but it was not a pleasant experience. Once satisfied, I felt him withdraw and he pulled out a knife. At first I thought that maybe he was going to kill me, that Vanyali had been unable to shield those memories of Galbatorix, but in the end he simply sliced open the ropes holding me to the bed.

I sat up, rubbing my sore wrists, and something occurred to me, "Enari, I am curious, why did you not examine my mind while I was unconscious? Surely that would have been simpler and it would have saved you the trouble of binding me to this bed."

His eyes gleamed, "We did try. Something kept shoving us out. We assumed that your dragon was being protective and wished us to wait for you to awaken."

"Yes...my dragon shoved you out. Of course." There was no way I was going to let them in on the fact that I could shove people out of my head when unwanted if they didn't already know.

A strange look appeared in his eye, but Enari just turned and said, "Follow me if you will Rider Katari."

With no better ideas, I rose and left the room after him.


	37. Chapter 37

**A/N Okay, I don't usually do these but I was away and therefore didn't write for a while and I'm sorry. Shoot me later. Preferably wait to make that decision until after you read this because I made it extra-long just to show how sorry I am. Hope you like it!**

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I followed Enari through what at first appeared to be a forest with very large trees. They were shaped a bit funny and we walked on what appeared to be a simple path, but out of the corner of my eye I would occasionally catch a glimpse of what looked like a hand or a bit of fabric, even feet, and very, very seldom there came pointed ears. At least that was what it looked like to me. They were all so blurry that I was unsure if my mind was playing tricks on me or I truly saw these things. At one point I saw a whole figure pass by an opening in a tree and I had to blink several times because the hole in the misshapen tree looked suspiciously like an intricately carved doorway to me. Blinking a little more, I noticed smaller holes that looked a bit like windows, and I finally realized why the tree seemed so odd; it was a house.

_Lili, look! The trees are houses!_

She turned her head toward me and, her eyes glittering, she said _I am aware, young one, as I have been for quite some time now. You forget, my eyesight is far superior to your own._

I rolled my eyes. _Thank you for informing me then. I'm sure you could sense my lack of realization and confusion while I was staring at those stupid tree-house-things._

Despite the annoyance practically oozing from my pores, she did one of her toothy dragon-smily things._ Little one, there are some things which you must see on your own, else you will never learn._

_Thanks for the zen crap, oh great dragon-sensei. Seriously, though, when did you become all wise and mighty._

_Despite what you may believe, I always have been, though experience has sharpened my wisdom. Clearly, though, it has not benefitted you in the same way._

_Hey! Did you just insult my smartness?_

_What do your sadly unsharpened senses tell you?_

I glared at her laughing eye, since I could only see the one, _What happened to zen Vanyali? I want her back. She didn't insult my intellect._

_Too bad, this is what you get. If you don't like it, tough. No refunds, no exchanges._

_But I didn't pick you in the first place._

_No, I chose you, and sometimes I wish there was such a thing as exchanging riders._

_Oh! You did not just say that! I can not believe I was just burned by a dragon who is sixteen years younger than I am._

_That was nothing. Check back in a few months._

_Why? Will you have gained the gift of wit by then?_

_No, I find that it is you who is lacking in that area. However, in that period of time, I shall be able to breathe fire and then truly burn you._

_Ah! You wouldn't dare._

_Try me._

_No thanks, I think I will pass on that one._

_You are smart in that respect, Little one._

_Well, I do believe that is a compliment coming from the high-and-mighty dragon herself. Thank yo-_ "AHH!" While we had been talking, I'd been too absorbed in the conversation to notice Enari stop in front of a tree that by comparison was larger than the rest, its roots making up an intricate hallway, and so I slammed into him.

After a bunch of apologies on my part, he turned toward me with a slight smile on his face, "I wanted to take this time to explain a few elven customs to you so that you gain some favor from the Queen and her nobles. It would serve you well."

"Why do you care?" I asked, confused.

He grinned, "Everyone has their reasons. Now, do you want to learn?" Then, without waiting for an answer, he continued, "Good. Alright, let's start with greetings." And he spent the next half hour teaching me elven customs. He was also a little surprised that I already knew a few from my lessons, though I didn't tell him that. I wasn't really ready to let them know who I was just yet. Honestly, my fear was that should I reveal who my supposed father was, they might just decide to chop me into little pieces, taking out their anger at the King on me. Like the concept of a whipping boy. Yeah, that would be a really, really bad idea.

When the half hour had gone by, he led me into the tree-building, into a large room with elven lords and ladies seated around and also the Queen of the elves, Queen Islanzadi. She looked very regal, her long black hair flowing down her back. Immediately I reiterated the greeting that Enari had just taught to me. Her eyes widened in surprise, but she kept her composure quite well, not that it would be that much of a shock, but it was only a subtle sign. She completed the customary greeting, then spoke, "So, Rider Katari, what brought you to our home here in Ellesmera and how did you find it without an elf guide?"

"Well, you see, about that, ummm.....I wasn't exactly conscious at the time, and we weren't looking for it exactly, and anything else on the subject you are going to have to ask Vanyali."

"Who?"

"My dragon."

"Oh, I see." She turned her gaze to Lili, who met it evenly. With one eye, as usual. I really did not understand why she did that. I made a mental note to ask her about that one day. The Queen looked her up and down, then said, "Well met Vanyali. Your name in and of itself is a description and a compliment. You are indeed magical, not only in your inheritance as a dragon, but in being able to locate Ellesmera without even an ounce of help from your then-incapacitated rider. Though I don't know how much help she would have been to one such as yourself." I truly did not know whether to be insulted or if she was simply praising Lili and I should ignore those little jabs. I chose the latter.

_Ah, but I was not looking for this place. I merely stumbled upon it with the help of some elves who I am aware had been following me since I entered the forest._ Lili broadcasted her thoughts to everyone present.

Some of the elven nobles looked a little uncomfortable, but the Queen simply said, "You understand that we must protect ourselves from the vile creature that is Galbatorix. We were being cautious of you, as a dragon, since we had no idea who you were or with whom your allegiance lies. Yours was not the rescued egg, which begs another question; where did you find her?" She had returned her attention to me. I fidgeted a bit, trying to fabricate a good story.

"I found her egg.....in....the mountains." I tried.

She still looked skeptical, "Which mountains?"

"The Beors."

"I see." And she launched into a whole mass of questions, many of which I was almost positive she knew the answer to already. Still, she asked them, whether to hide the extent of her knowledge of us or because she really didn't know, I had no clue. I answered her to the best of my abilities, and even had to create a few things when she got uncomfortably close to my past, some pieces of information that I wanted to keep hidden.

When she was finally satisfied with all of my answers, after what felt like hours in a really nice smelling court room-it smelled like flowers and no pollution, a cleanness one can't even dream of in a modern world-she clapped her hands, and the flowers I had been smelling fell from the ceiling. She ordered that a banquet be held in honor of our coming, a new hope, another rider to oppose Galbatorix.

When the banquet was in progress, there was much laughter and joy, and a ton of vegetarian food. Not that I had ever really liked meat, but this was just a teensy bit over the top. The only scrap of meat present was in front of Vanyali, and I noticed that the elves cringed just a little every time they smelled it or happened to see it. Obviously they did not find it as appetizing as Lili did. She was quite content with it.

Although, She commented, It tastes like they haven't cooked any sort of animal in years. It's fairly dry and tasteless for a deer. Oh well, I can always hunt and cook for myself. I can go anywhere from extra-crispy to raw depending on my mood and it would save them the trouble. They clearly dislike it. Wimps. And with that flattering comment, she ripped a leg off of her meal, gnawing noisily on the bone.

At that even my lip curled in distaste. It was not a pleasant sound by any creatures standards, save maybe a vulture.

As the festivities ended, the Islanzadi asked us to follow her and she would show us where to stay.

I ventured a question, "I was wondering, your Highness, is there anyone here that could possibly teach us? We have been learning on our own and I'm not sure how we could do in a fight. The last one I got into led to some problems, and Aramae, with whom I was traveling at the time, compared it to a friendly scuffle."

Without so much as a glance in my direction, and never breaking stride, she answered, "Certainly. We shall deal with that tomorrow, however, as we have arrived at your new accommodations."

She stopped abruptly in front of a giant tree, right next to an even larger one. There were quite a few trees nearly identical to the one in front of me around the much larger tree in a perfect circle.

"This is where riders and their dragons would have stayed in times past", She said, her voice saddened by some ancient grief.

All I could do was nod and thank her. Lili was a tad more articulate in her thanks.

She showed us to a room with very little in it. A simple desk, bed, and closet, what she explained to be a bathroom, a giant window for dragons, a nest as a bed for Lili, and a table with three chairs.

Sleep did not come quickly, and getting there involved a lot of banging my head on walls and a large amount of pacing before the sun started to come up. I eventually willed myself to sleep. Of course, three hours later, an elf was shaking me awake. He had much better luck with me than Vanyali, who would swat him with her tail like a fly, an annoyance. I winced sympathetically every time, and when I was sure he would have too many bruises to count, I offered to take over. He looked grateful, pointed out breakfast and a mossy colored tunic, told me that we were to meet Islanzadi in twenty minutes, and scampered out of the room.

I shouted Lili's name at the top of my mental lungs, sure that would get her, but she swatted me away as well. I instantly felt bad for the poor elf, worse so than I had before. After fifteen minutes of struggling with her, Vanyali finally cracked on eye. Obviously having a death wish, I poked it. She roared, and jumped to her feet, pinning me in the blink of an eye with her claw.

"Payback", I choked.

She snorted smoke in the general direction of my face, leaving me coughing as she let me up.

Five minutes later we had made it to the Queen. She stood waiting for us looking as regal as ever in a blood red dress, with a cape of gold, which I was pretty sure was gold leaf.

She led us out to a cliff overlooking some mountains that she informed us were known as the Craigs of Tel'Nair. I was about to respond, but she held up a hand to silence me as she, along with the rest of the elves, looked expectantly off of the cliff.

Just when I got bored of waiting and could not figure out what they were waiting for, there came a great thud, so massive it shook the ground and rattled my bones. I had to clamp my jaw shut to keep my teeth from slamming together.

Thud.

There it was again.

Thud.

_Lili, what do you think_-Thud-_that could be?_

_I think it is...._

Thud.

Before she could answer, a massive golden head, that of a dragon, appeared above the edge of the cliff. It rose higher and higher, until the whole dragon hovered above us. There was also an elf perched on it's back.

His deep voice rattled through us, _Katari, Vanyali, what an unexpected surprise._

He inspected Lili before pronouncing her a wonderful specimen. I felt her gloating all too well through our link and resisted the urge to roll my eyes.

Again the deep voice emanated from the great gold dragon, My name_ is Glaedr, and my rider is Oromis. Welcome. Katari, please get on Vanyali and follow me._

I complied just as his giant wings beat downward and he turned, going slowly to allow Lili to keep up. She took off and followed.

After a few seconds, she asked, _Catie, have you noticed his leg?_

_What leg?_

_Exactly my point!_

_I don't follow._

_He is missing his front leg! How did you not see?_

_I-I don't know. I was too focused on his head, and, I don't know, his teeth! Seriously, I think those things are as big as me. They may even have a few inches on me!_

_Oh, stop it, he won't take a bite out of you._

_You're right. I'm probably bite-sized just the way I am._

She growled.

A few seconds later, her feet touched the ground, and I jumped off of Lili as Oromis leaped gracefully from Glaedr. He walked over to where we stood, and said in a very, very calm voice that had to have been practiced for hours on end, "My name is Oromis, and this is my dragon, Glaedr. However, in this language you shall refer to us as Master, and in the Ancient Language, as Ebrithil. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Master Oromis."

_Yes, Master Glaedr._

I rolled my eyes as I realized where her mind had gone and wandered off to. She had never seen another of her kind, and she was fascinated, if not infatuated. This would be a fun topic later. Oromis clearly noticed her answer as well, because he cocked an eyebrow. Then he motioned for me to sit on a large stone, while he sat opposite on another. We sat there in silence, my mind so full of questions I was surprised that smoke wasn't coming out of my ears. Still I stayed quiet, though that was due in part to Lili going on and on about Glaedr like the obsessive high school girl she had become. So we sat. And sat. And.....wait for it....sat. And after another few hours of-guess what?-sitting, my whole body began to ache and I started to fidget from discomfort, not to mention my stomach rumbling. And we stayed there until the sun had gone all pinkish.

Only then did Oromis speak, "You have learned the value of patience well. That is good to know." I could have laughed. I had only been able to hold everything in because I had been talking with Lili. He continued, "It is late and you are probably hungry and tired. Go, and return here at six tomorrow morning."

No sooner were those words out than I was telling them good night and had Lili flying back to our tree. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed the pair going off somewhere else, but I supposed I shouldn't find that odd because how could they live in that little glade with nothing much there but a few rocks and a bunch of not-house trees.

When we made it back, I took a fast bath and fell asleep almost as soon as my head hit the pillow. There is nothing like sitting on your butt all day to really take it out of you.

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**Again, sorry guys, I know that it has been a few weeks, but I was out of the country, so sorry. Again. Hope you liked it!**


	38. Chapter 38

Morning came and this time Lili got up before me, of course she was super excited to go see Glaedr. She truly was infatuated with him, and it was starting to bother me. To wake me up, she whacked me over the head with her tail. No pleasantries, no nice attempts, not that they would have worked, not even cold water. Just a nice headache to start out my day. Lucky me. With a few hurried seedcakes and a forest green tunic, she threw me on her back insisting that we would be late if we did not hurry. Yet, on the way there, she had no problem taking her sweet time to talk to me and tell me all about Glaedr and to ask my opinion on him.

_So you know his leg?_

_No, Lili, I don't personally know it, but if he ever gets it back, I'm sure we will be the best of friends._ Okay, I'll admit it, I'm definitely not a morning person.

She growled impatiently, _Oh, you know what I meant. But have you ever wondered how he lost it?_

_Not really._

Ignoring me, she continued, _Well, I think it must have been some great battle over something really important. He seems brave that way. Maybe the dragon he loved. Oh that would be so romantic. Or maybe it was for Oromis. A dragon would do that for their rider, you know. You all are such a breakable race, not durable at all._

_Gee, thanks, Lili, you're so flattering. And are dragons really supposed to be this gushy, like a hormonal teenager? I'm not even that bad._

_Oh, be quiet, just because you're too young to have ever loved doesn't mean that those older than you don't._

_Lili! I'm older than you by sixteen years!_

_And I was in an egg for hundreds of them....I think....It would have to be at least one hundred because there have been no riders or dragons since then....So hah! I win! I am older!_

_Oh, yes, I'm sure you were quite the conscious little fetus sitting in your egg for those many years just waiting for someone to spring you from your terrible prison._

She stopped speaking as she caught sight of the cliff we were to meet Oromis and Glaedr at. She strained her wings to fly faster, then, without telling me, just started showing off with spirals and sharp turns. Thank goodness for my fast reflexes....oh, wait, I don't have any.

I gave a little gasp of surprise as I was thrown from her back, but I didn't have enough breath to scream. So, hurtling down into a rocky pit is a very good time to think about just how much your life means to you and just how much you don't want to lose it, and exactly how stupid your dragon is, not realizing you fell off and are currently plummeting to your death because they are too intent on impressing their instructor.

Finally, after I screamed at her, she did a nose dive, catching me at the last second, which hurt like hell. I was positive I would have some really nasty bruises.

She flew back upwards at top speed and landed gently on the ground, managing to make it look totally planned, all down to her saying _Ta-da! _to everyone. That is, until the illusion was probably ruined by me looking pretty shaken to death.

Despite my gorgeous after-near-death-experience look, Oromis smiled just slightly and said, "Vanyali, Katari, I am pleased that you are so comfortable with one another that you would risk Katari's life to show us your capabilities, however that is hardly necessary since you will be tested on it thoroughly later. Right now I need you to follow me to my home, which I hope you have realized is not on this cliff." With that said, he climbed up Glaedr's foreleg and they took off.

Vanyali, deeply chagrined, followed them, though it had barely dulled her spirit.

We followed them to another cliff, though this one had a cozy hut on it, which Oromis said was his house. He then sent Lili off with Glaedr so that they might work together, and he would deal with me.

First he taught me the Rimgar, or the Dance of Snake and Crane. It was strenuous and I struggled through it. When it was complete, I was allowed a slight break to drink some water, then I was told to sit on a rock outside the hut while he went inside to get some scrolls.

"Are you able to read, Katari?" He asked.

"Yes, master."

"And write?"

"Yes, master."

"In the Ancient Language as well?"

"A little bit, master, I was taught where I....formerly resided."

"I see," He handed me a scroll, "Try to read this."

After about an hour and a few questions-okay, a lot of questions- about what words were, I was able to get through what was a poem about the sea.

I smiled at the reminder of something so close to me. I loved the sea, my family and I went there every year. At the memory, I felt a tear slide down my cheek. I wondered what they were doing without me. I hoped they weren't worrying too much. It had been months. They probably thought I had been kidnapped and declared me dead because I hadn't been found. I never would be, either. They would bury an empty casket because no body would ever be found, because I had been kidnapped, but I wasn't dead, I was here, in some unknown place, with strange people and a dragon who had become my knew best friend.

The thoughts of my family brought even more tears to my eyes. I tried not to cry too much, especially here. I could do that later. So I sucked it up as best I could and returned to learning and reading. Oromis pretended not to have noticed, and for that I was grateful. I delved into the new scroll with a renewed vigor. This one was more poetry, and another followed, and another.

Soon the day was nearly over, and Oromis sent me into the woods where there was a small clearing. He told me to open my mind and listen until I could hear no more. It was so hard. I had a difficult time opening my mind to begin with, and then to not focus on a particular thing, it was very hard. Every time I thought I was getting a blurry larger picture, my mind would single out one thing in particular. A bird here, a squirrel there.

After what felt like eternity, I returned to Oromis, who was meditating serenely on a flat stone.

Hesitantly, I asked, "Master?"

Without moving a muscle, save his mouth, not even bothering to open his eyes, he asked, "What did you hear?"

I told of everything I had heard, and he listened. When I had finished, he said, "Try not to focus on one thing. You need to listen to everything at once. Now, tomorrow I want you to find the training field where the elves practice swordplay. You will meet an elf there and you will spar him for one hour each day. Now, I see the dragons returning. You and Vanyali get some rest, and don't forget what I said."

Lili and I headed back. I was afraid to fight the elf. I wasn't very good at sword fighting. Nervous, I decided to soak in a hot bath to calm down. It helped somewhat, and sleep helped a little more, but when I woke, I found myself shaking. Eating something without really seeing it, I threw on a light brown tunic with a leafy design on it. I grabbed my sword and headed out with Lili.

Of course, she decided that she just had to make a scene. She had to make whoever this elf was fear me, or if not me, her, and then me by association. She felt I needed this help since, according to her, a drunk squirrel could best me in less than three strikes.

She flew up above the trees until she spotted the field, then plunged through the branches, roaring, teeth bared and shiny, and smashed her feet into the ground making it shudder and a few elves fall over. Most stepped back, then returned to their previous activity, still keeping a wary eye on her, but one stepped toward us. As I hopped off, he raked his eyes up and down me with an expression that implied he was less than impressed.

Walking up to me, he introduced himself as Vanir, and said that I would be sparring him. We drew our swords and guarded the blades. Then we set to fighting. Each one was quick, under five moves. The first, he clipped my hip, the second my shoulder, and so on. Each time he sneered more and more, grew bolder in belittling Vanyali's choice of a rider.

She finally got fed up when he attacked her mentality and loyalties directly. With a tremendous roar, she leaped through the air and pinned him under one of her claws, squishing his chest. He struggled to breathe. She sniffed him once, curling her lip up in distaste, and at the same time revealing her sharp teeth.

At last she said, _He's not worth my time._ She released him and he stood up, gasping, and said that the hour was up.

Lili and I flew to Oromis, and he asked how it had gone. Without the details of Vanir's behavior, I told him, and then he sent Vanyali off while I performed the Rimgar. He had me read several scrolls, and go sit in the forest. Then he sent me and Lili back to our tree.

The next month proceeded in much the same way. He started to teach me a little magic and some history. I grew better at listening in the clearing. Vanir gave no trouble for a week or so but he kept growing bolder. Occasionally, Lili would have to put him in line. I got better and better at fighting him, too. Oromis began to teach me of poisons and things. He gave me scrolls to read in my spare time. Sometimes he sent me with Glaedr, and he stayed with Vanyali. Sometimes we all flew together. I was atarting to notice changes to my body as well. It was becoming more toned with built up muscles from all of the exercise and Rimgar and sword fighting. My ears were becoming pointy fast and my face was starting to lose some of its softness, becoming more angular, and making my blue eyes look bigger. I was as pale as ever and my black hair, loger than ever before, contrasted nicely with it.

Also, as my training went on, I began to trust Oromis more and more. So much so that, after talking for a whole night with no sleep, Vanyali and I decided to trust him and Glaedr with one of our hitherto guarded secrets.

I went to my session with Vanir, and then we ended up arriving early because we could wait no longer.

"Katari?" He asked in surprise when we got there so early, "Vanyali? Why are you so early?"

"Master, as you probably know, we have our secrets, and most of them are fairly inconsequential, but we felt that we should tell you-" I began.

_What she's trying to say is that I'm not the only egg which fell into her possession._ Vanyali finished for me. I looked at her gratefully.

A deep crease appeared between Oromis' brows. "What do you mean, not the only egg? Galbatorix only had three. We took one. Do you mean to say that you have the last egg as well?" He asked.

"I mean to say, and don't ask me how because I'm not ready to give up that secret yet, but Galbatorix has somehow kept hidden the existence of two more, and we have those. Sadly, he still has one, but we have two unhatched eggs hidden in the forest." I said all in one breath.

There was a long pause as Oromis processed this new information. Then he said slowly, "So you are saying that you two have somehow acquired two more of Galbatorix's eggs that were previously unknown to the world and that they have been hidden in the forest for the past month."

"Yes master."

_Yes master._

"Could you bring us to them?" He asked, eyeing us carefully.

"Of course, master." With that I turned and climbed onto Lili's back and she flew off in the direction of the location of her hiding spot. Oromis and Glaedr followed behind us.


	39. Chapter 39

Lili finally landed in a clearing which was barely large enough to hold Glaedr and his massive form. He ended up hovering above us while Lili went over to one of the larger trees and brushed aside some twigs, dirt, and plants. While she was digging, I took the time to marvel at the beauty around me. It was wonderful, with small yellow flowers littering the ground in clusters, swaying in the slight breeze on their long stems. There were much larger electric blue flowers climbing up trees on vines, and the trees appeared to be quite young, many of them only saplings. The massive trees I had become so accustomed to here in Du Weldenvarden appeared only beyond the younger trees save two or three logs around the outside and one going straight through with tiny, delicate purple flowers all over it. Ferns grew here and there and a stream trickled through the beautiful sanctuary with miniature waterfalls and rapids in it. Little minnows swam about in its waters as small brown birds pecked at them, trying to catch something to eat. Other birds chirped and sang nearby, but other than that, I was surprised by the lack of wildlife here..........for all of thirty seconds. Then I recalled the presence of the two dragons who, I normally forgot, were quite menacing. I suppose I was just too used to them now.

Eventually, Lili walked back over to us, her claws uprooting plants with every step. It was saddening to see such beauty destroyed in a matter of seconds, but I knew it would grow back soon, so it was alright. However, it was what she had clutched in her mouth that drew the most attention. It was the bag I knew to contain the two dragon eggs, one green, and one white.

She came to a stop in front of myself and Oromis, whose eyes were riveted to the bag, and she laid the bag down in such a way that the eggs spilled out of it, gently of course.

The elf showed very little emotion as he bent to gently lift the white egg and examine it. I took that as my cue to get the green one and, after a few moments of inspection by Oromis, they were returned to their bag, which he carried with him onto his golden dragon. I climbed onto Lili, who was getting quite large as time progressed, and we followed our teachers toward Ellesmera.

Throughout the entire exchange, not a word was said out loud or to me. I could say nothing of Oromis and his dragon, but all the same, when we arrived at our destination, Queen Islanzadi's hall, it was mildly shocking to hear the silence broken by her voice when Oromis had whispered all about the eggs to her.

"This is wonderful news! We had never dreamed of such a thing! For there to be two more eggs than we believed, and four of them in our possesion! This is simply amazing!" She exclaimed. Then, her eyes focused on me, as she cradled what she seemed to see as her new prized possessions to her chest. Her voice came out annoyed, angry, and a little bit indignant, "You could have told us this news sooner. How dare you hide this from me?!"

Everyone in the room looked at me expectantly, and all I could say was, "At least I told you now."

"This does not excuse your silence!"

"Look, I had my reasons, okay? Can we leave it at that?" At a look from the elven lords, ladies, and the Queen, and finally a kinder one from Oromis, I sighed, "Fine. Do you really want to know why? Then I will tell you. I was unsure of whether or not I trusted you. I'm......I suppose you could say new to this place. I lived in ignorance of everything in Alagaesia my whole life, and no, before you ask, i won't tell you where I came from. Ever. So forget it. Just know that now i trust you, and I told you of the eggs as soon as I did."

I was shaking by the end of that. Public speaking, especially when people were mad at me, had never been my forte. But at least my answer, and the eggs, seemed to pacify them for now. Soon after that, Islanzadi told every other elf of the glorious news and she decided to begin searching for their riders. Among the elves, of course. Celebrations were held as those deemed most likely to become riders paraded past the eggs. The first group all had some great skill in fighting, the next in magic. It went on for days, and Lili and I were forced to be there both on our behalf and on that of Glaedr and Oromis because Oromis had become inexplicably ill and could not attend. So we had no way out, save mortal injury, and that was not very plausible, though it sounded like a good alternative to the torture of sitting on a dragons back all day, which, I can tell you, gets really uncomfortable, especially when neither one is moving.

We just sat there, or, in Lili's case, stood, as figureheads. We talked to elves all day, giving us thanks for the eggs, and wishing Oromis well. Mostly the latter. They lined up forever just to repeat the elven greeting and tell us the same line over and over with little variation. Sometimes i could swear they got back in line just to torture us. Well, me, since I was the one who had to talk because Lili wouldn't. Ever. Not once. And not one elf took offense.

Then, at the end of each day, for one hour, about fifty elves went by the eggs. The next day, a different fifty, and so on. And the elves just kept coming from all of their elven cities to get the chance to say less than thirty words to us and to touch the eggs and watch other elves touch the eggs. It was boring and by the third day, my lines were so memorized that I could talk to the elves and Lili at the same time. And I usually got every word right.

On about the fifth day, Lili and I were discussing me and my love life because she thought there was something wrong with it and I did not.

_Kat, come on. You have to admit, you have issues in that department._

_And what makes you think that oh-Great-Dragon-Turned-Love-Guru?_

_You never had a boyfriend, even before you came to Alagaesia, and you don't even like anyone here. And don't tell me that the elves are ugly because even though I don't find them attractive, by human standards they are perfect. They are flawless, and their name is even the Fair Folk._

_Okay, first of all, I liked plenty of people before i turned sixteen and came here._

_Like who?!_, She demanded, not beleiveing me.

_Like.......Ben........and.......ummm.....that one guy on that cruise......and, oh! The guy in middle school and.......ummmm..........there were others!_

_Uhuh. Well what excuse do you have for here?_

_I've been way too busy to even think about that! With training and you and whatnot._

_What's that supposed to mean?!_

_You're just a little high maintenance._

_Am not!_

_Are to!_

_Am not!_

_Are to!_

_Am-_ But she was interrupted as the line of elves, and everyone present, turned to where the eggs were sitting on display. I shot up from where I had been slumped over. Sitting on top of a dragon really gives you a nice view of things, and what I saw made my eyes widen. As I watched, the green egg gave a violent shudder as a piece was punched out. Then out came another piece, and another, and finally out popped a little dragon.

I returned my attention slightly to Lili, still watching as all of the elves who had touched the eggs were brought together and paraded by again to see who had made it hatch.

_Hey, Lili, that dragon was much more efficient at hatching than you._

_Was not! And how would you know anyway?_

_I was there, remember? And you took freaking forever!_

_Liar! You always-_

Again, her rant was cut short by an elf crying out as a he touched the hatchling.

I jumped from Lili, probably the only one not frozen in place, and knelt next to him, gently prying his left hand from where he clutched it too his chest. And sure enough, there on his palm was a silvery patch that looked like the one on Oromis' hand, but nothing like the one on mine, which swirled from my palm around my wrist like water, with spirals all over. Vine-like. I wondered why I was so different, but that was unimportant at the moment. Right now I had been given explicit instructions by Oromis that if any egg hatched in his absence, the new rider was to be taken to him at once.

Gently, I helped the elf from the ground, picked up his dragon, which I handed to him, and told him to get onto Vanyali so that we could take him to Oromis.

His eyes widened at the part about riding on Lili, and he said, "Are you sure?"

I smiled, "Of course! Why not? I have to get you there somehow and it has to be fast."

He nodded, clambering up onto my dragon, still clutching his own. His expression said that he was still in shock. When I had leapt up onto Lili, I sat with my back to him. I turned my head and said, "Okay, so I'm guessing you have never flown before. Just hold on really tight to your dragon, and use one hand to hold onto my back. Got it?"

He nodded numbly and Lili took off far more gently than she ever did with me. It wasn't as much fun.

The elf followed instruction well and he was fine. In the air, Lili didn't go particularly fast, so I had time to talk to the elf and try to calm his nerves a bit, "So, what's your name?"

Eyes wide with a little hint of terror and at the same time joy at the flight, he replied, "Taylos. My name is Taylos."

"Do you have any idea what you want to name your dragon yet?"

"N-no. Not yet. Am I supposed to?"

"I'm not sure if that's required."

"Did you?"

"Nope. You sort of have to ask them if they like the name as well. And at first I had no idea what I was doing. I had a few problems adjusting. When I finally made mental contact with Vanyali-that's her name- I had no idea that she was even a she. And she wasn't very forthcoming with anything. For a while I just called her Fluffy because I had nothing better." I laughed at the memory, "I even had to threaten her with a really bad name just to get her to really talk to me. She was always stubborn."

"Will mine be that way?" He was relaxing more now, getting a little more used to the idea.

"I have no idea. It depends on your dragon. But you should have an easier time, regardless."

"What was difficult for you?"

"A lot of things. At the time I actually had soldiers hunting for me. Probably still are."

"Really?"

"Mhm. Hey, Taylos, how old are you?"

"Twenty five."

"Oh."

I probably would have said more, but we had arrived at Oromis' hut so I dropped him off and returned to let the other elves know what had happened, though I was fairly certain they knew already. Just to be sure there were no slow ones in the bunch.

Later the next day, the second egg hatched, this time for an elf named Faylen. After taking him to Oromis I finally got to have some free time, but Oromis assured me that Lili and I had better be ready for training bright and early the next day.


	40. Chapter 40

Lili and I decided to go our separate ways for the few hours we had free of everyone else. Even though we were still connected mentally, it was nice to have the semblance of space after dealing with the dull ceremony of egg-touching for the past few days. So while she went hunting for something other than seed cakes and vegetables, I walked off into the forest, moving along aimlessly. It helped me relax and clear my head, and for the first time I realized just how much I missed being alone for even short periods of time. And sleep didn't count. At all.

All around me the forest pulsed with life and I could no longer take it. I reached out with my mind to become a part of it, to feel it, to get lost in my own insignificance as compared to the being of du Weldenvarden. I felt everything at once, each living thing as it melted into one giant organism. Every little thing was so insignificant yet it meant so much to the health of the whole. One death could cause a massive chain effect. A few flies could get smashed by a person or a horse's tail. But those flies might have fed a bat, which might then die of malnutrition. It could then fall into the water and poison it as dead organisms do. This could kill off some fish and plants. Those fish could have fed a bear or other large predator, and could also have reproduced to create tons of other fish which would have fed other creatures, but because three or four fish died, those other predators might move on to something a little bit larger, say, the horse that killed those flies.

I felt the birds in the bush behind me, looking for bugs, the deer drinking from a stream, unknowingly swallowing a beetle whilst a wolf stalked it silently. There was a colony of ants fighting with a spider, and I felt both sides of the struggle. Somewhere in the leaves a snake slithered, black as night. Suddenly a weasel stepped on it, not realizing it was there. I felt the snake rear up in defense of itself, felt it snap the weasel's leg, the venom running through its veins, and I felt the weasel's life force leave the giant organism. And I vaguely felt Vanyali in a far off meadow, snapping up the corpses of her hunt. But I felt her just as much as every other creature, no more no less, even though my mind should be more attuned to hers.

My head whirled with this larger picture. It was intoxicating and I wished I had been able to do this earlier. I couldn't believe I had finally broken out of the shell in my mind. But I had to stop for fear that I would melt into the noise and the chaos and never return.

Returning to the silence of my mind I found that I had continued to walk, all the way to a river. There were huge rocks that occasionally had a lizard or bird on it. Looking down, I realized that I was halfway up my calves in the water, with small fish swarming around my legs.

Smiling to myself, I turned and followed the river for what seemed like a few miles where it poured over a roaring waterfall. It was maybe five or six stories up, landing in a crystal clear pool, and suddenly I wanted nothing more than to jump.

The water in the pool was cool and refreshing. Before I threw myself from the top of the fall, I never even thought about how deep or shallow the water might be beneath me, but it turned out to be fairly deep, so thankfully I didn't kill myself. For about an hour I just dove around and swam with the creatures that lived in the pool, copying them and following their graceful movements, though I highly doubted I was even half as smooth in my movements.

Eventually, Lili found me and joined me. I hopped on her back and she flew up only to go into a straight nose dive from a hundred feet up straight back into the water. It was incredibly fun and we repeated it a few more times until the sun went down and stayed there. The owls came out, the frogs and the crickets.

Waking up the next morning was not a fun experience. We had accidentally stayed out so long that it only left two hours for sleep, which was not even close to enough.

Getting to Oromis' hut was even less fun because we were late, which meant we had to do the equivalent of a few thousand pushups or something like that; we had to replant a huge tree further away from Oromis' house. It also didn't help that Taylos and Faylen were model students who happened to have the advantage of already being elves and having the strength, agility, stamina, etc. that comes with being one. The only thing I had on them was being able to ride my dragon already, even though, according to Oromis, I was becoming more and more elf-like every day, mostly meaning that my ears were rapidly becoming pointy, and I was already far beyond human abilities. It still bothered me though.

Well, after the grueling task of replanting a ridiculously old tree, I had to spar the two elves, and of course they were the ones who switched off, one always sparring with me, never with one another. And it wasn't just swords, it was fists and magic, axes, short blades, stones, and any other form of weapon or fighting that Oromis could think of. Sometimes he made up rules to go with it, and sometimes it was just a free-for-all. It was horrible and I was incredibly tired by the time he let us stop. They weren't even breathing hard. I only won a few of the fights, the earlier ones, by resorting to mental warfare as well. It could be anything from trying to get into their minds at the same time as I fought, something I could thank Lady Emren for, to distracting them, scaring them, and once I even told Faylen that there was a naked elf girl running through the woods if he looked really hard.

Oromis had laughed when Faylen and Taylos complained that I was being unfair. He had simply said, "Anything that keeps you alive and fighting is encouraged. Which excludes running away unless absolutely necessary"

From then on they had become more wary of anything I said and started trying to get into my mind as well. That never worked, but it helped them.

After an eternity, Oromis sent us off to listen until we could hear no more, so I immersed myself back into the massive stream of life. Too soon, though, I had to come back to myself with a great sense of loss. Going back to Oromis, Each of us recounted what we had heard he congratulated me on passing that, as though it was a test. Of course by this time we were ready to leave, and we were informed that Faylen and Taylos would be staying in our tree, so we walked back with them instead of flying.

"Hey guys, have you named your dragons yet?" I asked.

They both shook their heads.

"Well do you even know if they are male or female?"

Again, they shook their heads.

_I can check_, Lili told them.

"What, you mean look?", Taylos frowned, "Well, you are a dragon. I guess you would know where all their parts are. But they might not let you near them. Then again you are a dragon. I don't know. I guess you could try looking"

Faylen and I burst out laughing. Lili made that funny grinding sound that meant she was laughing as well.

_Or I could just ask,_ She said.

"Oh. Well I guess that works too", He looked like he was actually thinking about how well it would work for her to ask.

Vanyali turned and stared at the small green dragon for several seconds, then at the little white one. Finally, after she finished what appeared to be a rather intense staring contest, she said, _Both are male._

"Oh, good," Faylen said, "I was thinking about Eridor. Maybe Mifftonworth , he was a nice dragon."

I couldn't help it, I fell to the ground rolling around I was laughing so hard. Tears streamed from my eyes, and the whole time Faylen looked totally confused as to the reason behind my sudden fit of laughter.

Lili, on the other hand, knew exactly why, _She is laughing at that name. I'm sorry, but it is truly awful. Please don't torture your dragon with such a name. I know I would find it terrible. Not to mention there is no way I would be dumb enough to consent to be called such a thing._

"Why not? It is a perfectly respectable name from a perfectly respectable dragon"

"Not......if......he agreed......to be called.......Mifftonworth!" I choked out, before collapsing in a fresh fit of laughter.

"Okay! Fine! I'll deal with the naming later! This naming stuff is so stressful", He huffed.

_Faylen, I have a question. You said miff-_, she glanced at me, _the dragon you were considering naming yours after, you said he was nice. How did you know that?_

"I knew him"

_But they were all killed years ago._

"And?"

_How old are you exactly?_

"Two-hundred-and-twenty-four"

I gaped, then, "Dang, I didn't think they let old people become new riders. I mean, no offense, 'cause you don't look that old, but won't you die soon?"

"No! And I am not that old! Have you ever asked Oromis how old he is? And I will not die soon! No one knows the life-span of an elf, or a rider, but we think it may span on until sickness or violence claims us. Otherwise, we may be immortal"

I was silent with that revelation. So I might live for a really, really long time. That would be interesting. Finally I regained my voice, "Oh. Well you're still an old person by my standards"

He glared daggers at me. He really looked like he wanted to pounce on me and rip my throat out. Okay, maybe nothing so drastic, but he looked like he wanted to do something that would most likely result in a lost limb on my part. And that would be very bad and probably it wouldn't feel very nice either. Luckily, at that moment we reached the tree, and I quickly showed them their rooms and darted up to mine.

The next day, the dragons went off on their own, and we stayed with Oromis. However, today he had something interesting planned for us.

"Today, we are going to test your survival skills, as well as how you do should you become separated from your dragon and are being pursued. Separated from everyone, I should say. Now, each of you will have an elf pursuing you. You may not help one another. I want to see how long you can evade your pursuer. Should they catch you, I want you to see if you can fight them off. You want to get away at all costs. They will keep track of how many times they fight with you. This is a week long exercise. You do have to fend for yourselves, on your own, and you may only bring what you have with you at this moment, plus a dagger. Remember, there is only one way to lose this challenge. These elves, or pursuers, have orders to capture you alive. This means that so long as you escape before they get you here", He indicated the general area where his hut was located, "You have not failed. Any questions?" When no one raised their hand or said anything, he threw us each a dagger and showed us who we would be paired up with.

"Go!" He yelled, and we were off into the forest as fast as we could. We would be given a thirty minute head start and that was it. Luckily, while Oromis had been talking, I had devised a plan. It would take about five minutes to complete, but then I could keep running.

About three minutes in I pulled my rope belt of, which was really just a big coil of rope I liked to use as an accessory. It worked. I tied knot after knot to trees, sticks, and one large stone, used magic to turn it into a net, and then cast another spell to make it appear nearly invisible.

Moving on a little further, I found the edge of a cliff. Glancing just behind me, I jumped, grabbing hold of the rock and climbing down with at least a tiny amount of grace. At the bottom, I ran to my little pool. It provided water, food, and shelter under rocks.

I cast a spell that would only drain my energy if someone came within a hundred yards of where I was hiding, and it would warn me of their approach. Then, I gathered some seeds and berries, ate, drank, and drifted to sleep under a rock that was relatively well hidden from view.

**Sorry guys, I know I'm being really slow, but I've been really busy. This is the second time in a row and I will try not to let it happen again!**


	41. Chapter 41

I woke with a start as something hard connected with my side. All the air whooshed from my lungs as I curled over from the initial sharp pain, after which came a slow, hot throbbing pain flowing from the point of impact.

I opened my eyes and tried to get up only to receive another kick to the side from my new best friend; the elf that I was supposed to be avoiding, and who I was currently supposed to be running away from. Unfortunately, it didn't look like I was going anywhere anytime soon as he aimed another kick right at my head.

I rolled out of the way just in time to have my fingers crushed. Screaming, I scrambled back until I reached the water, and not stopping, I rolled right in.

It was refreshing and felt really good on my sore fingers. Unfortunately, my new friend jumped in with me, swimming toward me really, really fast. I had just enough time to say the spell that would create a bubble full of air around my head before he wrapped his hand around my ankle, jerking me under and holding me there, probably waiting for me to black out.

I really hated to disappoint him, but since I could still speak in my little bubble, I said quietly, "Jierda", and saw his eyes go wide an instant before his grip loosened enough for me to swim away.

After I was out, I glanced back at him struggling on the surface and almost felt that I shouldn't have done that, seeing his legs twisted at impossible angles. I was sure it was causing him more than mild discomfort.

Unfortunately, I shouldn't have stayed to watch because he muttered a few words and his legs were all better. Of course, being good as new, he was now free to come after me again.

Muttering a few curses, I rushed through the trees, ignoring the numerous cuts from branches smacking me as I passed. I couldn't be caught now. I hadn't even made it twenty-four hours.

After long he caught up with me. Thinking as quickly as I could, I muttered a spell. Okay, more like shouted it for all the world to hear, definitely making a few birds fly off with the volume of my voice. Anyway, I said that I wanted the elf to lose his senses, sound, taste, smell, touch, and hearing, but I accidentally phrased my sentence so that I directed the magic to have his eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and touch leave him. So, of course, that was exactly what they did.

Now, why I stayed there to watch my awful spell take affect is a question I will always ask myself, but I did, and it was not pretty. Picture someone's eyes being gouged out, nose cut off, mouth......disappearing, and ears being thrown into a bush, and you have a very general, yet nowhere near as horrific, idea of what I witnessed. I was quite surprised that I didn't turn around on the spot and heave the contents of my stomach into the closest bush when his eyes pulled out of his head, optic nerve stretching until it snapped. It was absolutely gross to say the least. And after the mouth bit, which was really, really creepy to watch, I decided not to stick around to see what happened get rid of that fifth sense of touch.

For the next three days I ran through the forest, sleeping wherever was safest, wherever seemed the most secluded, and never staying in the same spot for more than three hours. This may seem problematic and it may also appear to be a sleep-deprivation-inducing practice, but if one runs for three hours, sleeps for three hours, and repeats the pattern, it works just fine for a while.

Sleeping in places ranging from caves down the side of a cliff to the tip tops of trees, I managed to stay hidden and moving long enough to evade the friendly neighborhood attack elf for those three days. On the fourth, however, I was not so lucky.

I was just getting back to running after sleeping in a nest belonging to some very large breed of bird very high up in a tree so I had a lovely view of the sea of green leaves. I was leaping from tree top to tree top, which was more fun than simply running, when, out of nowhere, my fully recovered elf tracker smashed into me, causing us both to plummet down toward the ground. As the last few branches whizzed by before there was no option other than to test the durability of a body against the ground, he released his hold on me to grab a branch, and I managed to catch the last possible one.

Sadly, my luck could never be that good. My friend hopped onto the branch, which cracked under the new weight. Both of us landed on our feet, both half crouched, facing one another, waiting for the other to make the first move.

I knew he wouldn't be able to hold off long, and I wasn't disappointed. After a five minute staring contest, he lunged. I did a flip over him, turned to the left and tore through the trees. He wasn't slow to follow either.

He made a grab for me, just barely missing, though his nail grazed my cheek. Another swipe, and this time he managed to grab a substantial piece of my right sleeve. He jerked back, trying to make me fall over, just as I pulled my arm forward, trying to knock him off balance, which effectively tore my sleeve off.

His hand shot out to catch my arm this time, but as I yanked my arm away, he only succeeded in getting my skin caked under his fingernails. It stung horribly, and I could feel blood pouring down my arm.

I jumped up higher than any normal human should and caught a branch, ignoring the sudden stab in my arm, and began to flip and jump from branch to branch, up and over. At one point I thought I saw something blue moving ahead, but I was too focused. Unfortunately, I made it to a branch that was too far from the others to continue in the trees. I couldn't go back because the elf was there, so that left the ground.

I hesitated, until I felt something sharp in my leg. Glancing back, I saw blondie with his hand around the hilt of a knife whose blade was buried in my thigh. Cursing, I leapt at the ground that had been clear seconds before, only to smash into a rather unlucky elf. Correction, boy. As i looked at him to apologize, I realized that he was not, in fact, an elf. I saw no sharply pointed ears, though they were not perfectly rounded, no slanted eyes, and his hair was brown.

As I stood and turned, ready to face my opponent, completely tuning out the boy and the elves now gathering around, I found that I could not see him. What I did see now was a very sharp, very lethal-looking ruby red sword at my throat.


	42. Chapter 42

With the bright sword at my neck, crimson and glistening, I should have been afraid, as any sane person would be. Especially since I was in not-so-good condition, bruised, bleeding, and broken as I was, and this was no drill. There was no guarantee that this person would not slit my throat right here. Then again, I had never was normal. So, of course, I just laughed. Laughed because this was ridiculous. I had spent days being hunted, stabbed, and beat up. I had spent months training. This should have been child's play, especially since they were just standing there, not cutting into my throat.

I just laughed, and laughed, and....wait for it.....laughed, until I noticed the blade not holding as steady, as if they were starting to question my sanity. Of course, at that moment, they should have been, but that's not the point.

As soon as I noticed this, I took full advantage, reaching back with the wicked fast reflexes I had developed, grabbing their wrist and shoulder, and throwing them, now him, I realized, to the ground, and pinning his arms above his head.

He didn't even try to fight back or move. I had no idea why, but just as I was about to stand up someone wrenched me up by my hair from behind me. It hurt like hell. I grabbed the hand to take away the bulk of the pull, then I twisted under their arm, twisting the hand as well, until I saw their foot, at which point I stood up straight, snapping the wrist.

I had about thirty seconds to look at the elf who had attacked me, a female elf with flowing black hair, until she came at me viciously. Apparently, she did not take well to having bones broken.

As she threw a punch I dodged, backing away. She wouldn't hear of that, chasing after me, raining down blow after blow, most of which I managed to block, though a few landed. Black eye here, broken finger there, bruises all over, cut by a finger nail, nothing I couldn't handle. Finally she kicked me in the thigh, right on the terrible stab wound I had there. That was it, no more holding back. Before I hadn't wanted to hurt her because clearly she wouldn't be here unless she was one of the good guys, but she had crossed the line.

After a struggle, She had me pinned on the ground with a knife at my throat. Her face was furious, and suddenly I knew who she was. The elf from those dreams. The one I had been ready to go save.

"Who are you?" I asked.

"Arya. And this is Eragon Shade slayer and Rider. Who are you that you would dare attack us?" She demanded.

"Katari, Rider, and clearly a far better one than he if I was able to best him that fast. Especially in this condition. And for the record, I accidentally jumped on him. You two attacked me."

She punched me, "Eragon lost because he is injured and cannot fight back. What accomplishment can you boast of?"

Spitting out blood, I replied, "I escaped Galbatorix with three eggs before mine hatched. I had no training as a rider, and minimal otherwise. How's that?"

"Alright, so then what were you doing jumping from the trees and why was an elf chasing you?"

"Training. Now please get off of me so I can finish. If you don't mind." She stood rather unwillingly as my presence and story was confirmed by the elf who had been tracking me and others present.

"So, I think after this I can give you a head start." The tracker elf said, half smiling.

"Am I allowed to at least heal this first?" I asked, indicating my leg.

"Of course."

"Yeah, you only say that because you know it will make me weaker."

This time he grinned fully, "Naturally."

I rolled my eyes, and after saying the spell while stealing all energy needed from surrounding trees, someone crashed through the trees behind me. My whole body restored, I whipped around to see Taylos tearing out into the clearing, followed by his pursuer. he looked just as messed up as I probably had moments ago.

"Head start over." The elf behind me said.

I whirled, kicking my elf square in the jaw, knocking him over for a second.

"Taylos!" I called over to him, trying to get him to come over. He got the message and ran over. Standing back to back, we stood a far better chance.

More elves gathered around us as blows were exchanged. Very painful blows, might I add. I saw Arya and Eragon watching intently. Briefly, I considered that spell from before, but that might bother some of those present. Maybe if I just broke some things......

I shouted the words that would break his knees and dislocate his shoulders. Obviously it wouldn't work for long. This guy had some serious magic skills. However, it would give me ample time to help Taylos finish off his elf.

After he had been dispatched, or, well, knocked out with no hope of waking up for quite some time, we did the same to the other, and then ran as fast as possible into the depths of the forest, just in case.

The final two days were brutal. Even though Taylos and I could work together, we each had the other to worry about, plus their tracker. But somehow we made it. Maybe it had something to do with a certain catapult...regardless, we stumbled back to Oromis' hut grinning like idiots.

Only moments later did we realize what idiots we truly were. Our elves tackled us to the ground. When our faces read pure confusion, Oromis looked amused, "You still had three hours to go. You have been captured. Extra training will be required, I see."

Both of us groaned, but I had more of a reason. I had been training longer and had been far more out of shape, which meant I had had far more of his extra training methods. They were more painful than anything. I would rather be stabbed a hundred times than repeat last time. He had told me to go on the ground and hold pushup position, arms bent. Then, he began to pile on the sandbags. One by one, with minute intervals between each. When I collapsed under two, he said that in order to eat I had to withstand five and hold them there for five minutes. That was the longest night of my life, all because he thought my left pinkie shook when I held a sword. That repeated every night for the next two weeks until he was happy.

Of course, this time, he tied each of us upside down from a tree and told us to get out of it. Should be easy right? Well, not when you can't use magic because your psycho teacher drugged you and your hands are tied at a particularly awkward angle so that you are in pain whenever you try to bend upward.

Four hours later we heard Faylen come through the trees with his elf. He took one look at us and laughed. Then he went back to his room to sleep.

Seven hours after that, he was back, along with two others. From the sound of their voices, they were the last people I wanted to see in this position.

Oromis explained what we were doing, then started training the others.

Finally, I figured out that stretching backward didn't hurt, and neither did swinging. I maneuvered myself so that I was standing on top of the branch, where I jumped and jumped until it snapped an hour later. Then, I got the rope off, loosening my feet enough to wiggle out. I then found a jagged rock and cut the rope off of my hands.

I walked over to Oromis who had me spend the rest of the day performing the Rimgar.

I was incredibly sore when Faylen, Taylos, who had finally freed himself, and I walked beck to the tree.

"So, how was your week?" I asked.

"Fine. I hung my elf from a tree and drugged him, and then he told me that they were all in the elven army, and this was what they really did." Faylen told us, and both Taylos and I rolled our eyes.

"Well I was pretty good at avoiding mine. That fight with Katari was the only one I had with him," Taylos and Faylen both looked at me waiting.

"Ummm....I got found alot....and I sorta ripped his face off once, and I got stabbed, and it was just not a good week. Before you got there, I got a sword held to my throat by that Eragon kid, and Arya, whoever she is, kicked my butt. I'm pretty sure she hates my guts. And I can't do magic or anything thanks to those damn drugs. By the way, Faylen, your little story explains alot about where Oromis got his idea from."

"Wait, Arya did you say? You fought the Princess?" Taylos asked.

"No! She attacked me and I just blocked and stuff! What was I supposed to do? Wait, you mean she's Islanzadi's daughter?"

They nodded.

"Well that explains quite a bit."

"Yes. Oh and Ebrithil said to tell you that the dragons will be back tomorrow, waiting for us."

I smiled blissfully, "I can't wait to see Vanyali!" I twirled around.

The other two eyed me strangely.

"Exactly how much of that drug did he give you?"

"Not that much." I pouted, "Besides, at least I'm still more mentally competent than you two"

"Hey!" Faylen yelled almost playfully for him.

"You take that back!" Taylos was grinning slightly.

"And what if I say not if you were being crushed by a rockslide."

"Then you better be ready to defend your words." Taylos said, and before I could process, he had tackled me and was sitting on top of me with my arms pinned above my head.

He was laughing a bit too much for my taste, so I kneed him in the gut and rolled over, switching our positions. That is, until Faylen picked me up just until my feet were no longer touching the ground and my arms were pinned at my sides.

Both were laughing freely by now, and Taylos took his time walking over, like he was stalking prey, "Are you going to take it back yet?"

"In your dreams."

"Very well, you asked for it", He launched himself at me and started tickling my sides until I was in hysterics, unable to breathe at all.

"Fine, I give, I give! Just stop the torture!" I choked.

"First take it back."

"Fine! You two are brilliant! I'm sorry I insulted your intelligence! Now get off!"

They glanced at one another, kept going for another few minutes, then finally set me free, at which point I punched both of them in the arm, half serious, half playing.

Turning, and still laughing, I went to the tree to go to bed when I saw Eragon watching from just inside, almost in the shadows. I couldn't quite pinpoint the expression on his face before he turned and disappeared up into the tree.


	43. Chapter 43

**Hey, Sorry, I have been sooooo busy lately, but here (finally) is the next chapter.**

Waking up when you need a lot of sleep is never fun, and I almost stayed put, screw the consequences, but something pulled at the corners of my mind. There was something I needed to be up for. I had to go train, go through hell, because something was happening.

"Lili!" I squealed, leaping out of bed, getting dressed, and running to Oromis' hut. He was outside waiting and I was the first one there, followed closely by Faylen five minutes later and Taylos ten minutes.

Oromis sent us to spar one another in rounds. Of course I never got a break. Not one. Sparring with swords for an hour, and fists another hour, with not one breather. By the time Eragon showed his face I was fuming. But seeing him there helped because that meant he had to continuously spar with one of the others. That is until he sat on the sidelines, watching.

Growling, I attacked Taylos with renewed effort, which surprised him enough that I smashed my fist into the side of his head. He fell over stunned, a little trickle of blood coming from where my thumb nail had gouged a little skin.

"Okay, that's enough of that", Oromis had gone into his hut and reemerged carrying at least thirty scrolls, "Start studying you three. Eragon, come with me."

When he was out of earshot, Taylos glared at me, "What was that for?"

"Hmm?"

"Punching my head so hard."

"Oh, sorry. I was letting out some repressed anger."

"Well, if you ask me, I think you should have kept it repressed. I think you gave me a concussion." He pouted a bit and put his hand to his head, checking the damage.

Finally smiling a little, I kicked his shin, "There. Now that pain can drown out the one in your head."

"Now they both hurt! Thanks a lot!"

"Hey, if you don't like my methods, don't complain." I grabbed the top scroll, of course grammar for the ancient language, and plopped on the ground, leaning on the trunk of a tree.

Rolling his eyes, Faylen walked over to Taylos and healed him. I probably should have been the one to do that, but I was in no mood. Just because I had been a rider the longest didn't mean that Oromis should all but kill me every day. Okay, maybe that was a little melodramatic, but it didn't change the fact that it kinda pissed me off.

After hours of reading and seven of the scrolls, I felt a familiar and sorely missed presence in my mind.

_Lili!_ I called mentally. _Where are you? Faylen said you would be here waiting for us!_

_We are flying back about five minutes from you. We were delayed because Glaedr decided to give me an impromptu lesson in arial maneuvers._

_I see. So how are the other two?_

_On my back sleeping._

_Wow. You're that boring?_

_Hardly. And what are you doing back there?_

_I am studying stuff while Oromis deals with Eragon._

_Ah. You mean Saphira Brightscale's rider._

_Who?_

_She flew out to meet us when they arrived._

_Okay, well I guess. But he doesn't do anything. At. All. He just sits there and watches._

_That might have something to do with the scar on his back from the blade of the shade he killed. He truly can't do anything._

_Oh. Well that makes me feel better. I thought they were just putting him on some crazy pedestal because of his 'awesome shadeslaying skills'._ I thought sarcastically.

_Well that too._

_Lovely. Oh, and there's this psycho elf girl, who coincidentally is the one that was trapped in the dungeon or whatever. She was being really defensive of Eragon after I jumped on him during training and he tried to kill me. It was an accident! He wasn't there when I checked the first time and then she attacked my ability as a rider!_

_Arya has returned?_

_Yes. Why?_

_Because she is the elf princess._

_Yeah, so I heard........well I still don't like her much._

_You are so judgmental_. She said, not sounding as though she cared much or disagreed really.

_Yeah, well I have a good reason this time._

_I'm sure you do. So anyway, how was your training?_ I was glad for her change of subject....sort of. I still was incredibly unhappy about how the training thing had gone.

_Fine, fine, I only got stabbed a few times, some broken ribs, not much sleep, a lot of running, I almost got killed for real, I failed, I suck at evading, I ripped an elf's face of with magic. Nothing too major._

_How did you rip an elf's face of? Tell me the details._

So, instead of telling her, I showed her what I remembered. And when I was done, she started laughing about it and telling me I should try it again sometime. It disturbed me for a moment until I realized it was probably just her nature to enjoy the gore. So I let it go.

Finally, the dragons landed nearby and the three of us ran over to meet them. While I hugged Lili, Faylen appeared to be having an incredibly intense staring contest with his little white dragon, and Taylos had started wrestling with his.

_What is wrong with your friend?_ Lili asked me, looking at him.

_Who, Taylos? What do you mean? I don't see anything off about him._

_He just doesn't act much like an elf. He acts more human than anything, yet I know he is an elf._

_Well I'm glad someone else here is remotely normal. And I'm glad he doesn't have that annoying elvish demeanor, the one where they aren't particularly forthcoming with anything and they're cryptic and all mind games and whatnot. It gets obnoxious after a while._

_What do you mean, one other remotely normal being?_

I laughed, _Lili, you will never be normal. Just accept it for what it is._

She snorted and swatted at my head with her paw, which I ducked.

Then, of course, Oromis and Eragon just had to emerge from wherever they had been and break up the reunion. Oromis then sent Eragon and I off with Glaedr and our dragons to do flying stuff while he worked with the other two.

I watched Eragon climb onto his blue dragon, who was smaller than Lili. She seemed rather satisfied by that little detail, and took off, leaping into the air, flying maybe fifty or so feet out, then she suddenly turned her nose straight down and plummeted toward the bottom of the cliff in a tight spiral. I had to hold on for dear life, but I could hear myself screaming with joy. This was far more fun than I had been having lately.

Just as we were about to slam into the hard rocks and turn into a pancake version of ourselves, she turned up sharply, beating her wings until she was following Glaedr. Thus ended her tricks, however she noticed that Saphira was doing quite a bit of showing off, and definitely not for my benefit, Lili's, or Eragon's. And whereas hers had simply been a welcome-back-to-the-wonders-of-flying for my benefit, and hers, this was just pure showing off. Not to say that she wasn't good. She was twisting all over the place, and I almost felt sorry for Eragon, he looked so shaken up and tired, and if I wasn't mistaken there was a bit of dried blood on the corner of his mouth. I could see things like that now with my improving eyesight. It was quite exciting.

Practicing with Glaedr was always fun. He never underestimated us or made us do more than Eragon. Here, in the air, we were equals, and it was totally up to the dragons. Neither of us fell, and I started to see just how proficient a flier he was, no matter how tired or hurt he was.

After, Lili and I flew straight back to our tree, figuring that Faylen and Taylos might want some time to themselves with their dragons. Okay, so it was mostly because we ourselves wanted that time. We sat up for a few hours catching up and talking about the most random things until exhaustion finally claimed us.

"Katari!" My name was drawn out, every syllable, so that it sounded a bit whiny. Taylos was banging on my door, and I was so not ready to get up. Of course, he really didn't care, "Katari! Get up!"

I threw on a tunic, backwards on accident, and some pants. After switching it around, I burst through the door.......and hit Taylos in the face.

"Ow! What was that for?" He yelled as blood poured from his broken nose.

"Sorry. Didn't mean to. I guess that'll teach you to wake me up this early", I probably would have laughed if I hadn't been so tired. I quickly healed his nose, "So what do you want?"

"I named Zanethos!" At my blank look, "Zanethos! My dragon!"

"Oh! That's great!" I hugged him, "When?"

"Thirty seconds before I knocked on your door."

"Oh. That was fast. Wouldn't you want to be talking to him right now?"

"I guess. I just really wanted to tell you."

"Well I'm glad I'm at the top of your list. But seriously. Talking to him might be a good idea."

"I am. With the whole mind thing."

"Uhuh. And what's he saying then?"

"Ummm.........It's a secret." He suddenly looked really nervous about something.

I rolled my eyes, "Whatever. Let's go get something to eat. I'm starving and it's early." I started walking down the stairs, but when I didn't hear him moving behind me, I whipped around and grabbed the front of his shirt, said, "Move. Your butt. Now," and without giving him a chance to respond, turned back around equally fast and all but dragged him down the stairs.

"Come on! I can walk by myself!" He growled, trying to pull his shirt free.

"Nope. Only big boys can walk by themselves. You need help since you seem to have trouble with the concept of putting one foot in front of the other."

He continued to grumble, and I continued to ignore him, all the way through breakfast and all the way to Oromis' hut. When he told Oromis the news, he congratulated him and then immediately set us all to work, as Taylos had arrived shortly before us. He had me spar both of them at once for a few rounds.

As I was taking a breather for a few moments, he walked over, "Quick, how would you detect a poison in your drink if you were drunk and unable to use magic?"

"Umm.......I would-"

"Too slow! Down on the ground! Pushups."

"How many?"

"Until I'm happy." He said shortly before walking quickly toward his hut.

I sighed and started doing pushups. After months of training, this was nothing at all.....or so I thought until I felt something heavy land on my back. Then another, and another, and another. That made it harder. Exponentially harder. It is not easy to do pushups with massive bags of dirt on your back. And Oromis was not satisfied with the number for another half hour, when I was dying.

Then Lili and I were told to go up in the air while Taylos, Faylen, Eragon, Sapphira, and Zanethos threw things at us that we had to dodge. Not one at a time either, which forced Lili to do particularly complex maneuvers and me to hold on for dear life. Then it was Eragon's turn. Then we meditated a bit and went home.

A few weeks later, after Faylen had named his dragon Aidor, Oromis told us about something called the Blood-oath celebration, and that we were required to bring a gift. Of course the two elves, especially Faylen who had lived it, knew what this was, but it was news to Eragon and myself. As of late, Eragon had kind of been growing on me. He now hung out with us some instead of constantly chasing Arya around like a lost puppy. Arya, of course, did not like me any better. But I didn't care. I just got over it.

_Lili, what are you going to do? I have no clue, I mean some of these elves have probably been working for the past hundred years on theirs._

_I have an idea. But I'm not going to tell you. It shall be a surprise._

_Thanks. Thanks a lot. You are so helpful._

_Anytime._

Thinking a bit more, I got an idea, and set to work.


	44. Chapter 44

When the celebration became imminent, lanterns were placed everywhere, including on every branch of the menoa tree, fresh, festive flowers appeared on the plants, and the forest appeared to have adopted the festive spirit of the elves. The elves were excited, singing late at night to the plants, and running around, and working to create the incredible atmosphere.

I wore a white, flowing halter-esque dress that bared my entire back. It fastened around my neck with a thin gold chain with an intricate gold piece that covered the place where the chain met the dress. On my back, I had placed small, purple gems that matched Vanyali in color, and the pattern matched the mark on my palm.

I glared at my reflection in the mirror. My features looked so....elfish. They had been getting increasingly so every day. I barely looked human, save the brilliant blue of my eyes and their shape. Other than that, I was practically an elf. Not to mention I hadn't looked the girly in what felt like an eternity. It was more than a little uncomfortable, and I doubted I would be repeating it anytime soon. But for the celebration I would tolerate it.

I heard knocking on my door. Opening it revealed the excited faces of Taylos and Faylen. Zanethos and Aidor were sitting behind them.

"Time to go?" I asked. They looked more cleaned up than normal.

They nodded their heads rapidly.

Rolling my eyes, I grabbed the box that contained my gift, noting that each of the four held something, whether in hand or mouth, that probably served a similar purpose.

I followed them to the bottom of the tree where Vanyali met us, and together the six of us walked to the Menoa tree.

The celebration was wonderful. The elves went absolutely mad. Oromis had told Eragon to say words over himself and Orik, the dwarf he had brought with him, but had not told me to. Something about him believing that I was enough of an elf to handle the magic that the festivities would bring.

Everyone presented their gifts. They were absolutely amazing....that's pretty much all I remember about them. I think I may have had a little too much of their alcoholic drink. It's really good though, but it makes things a little bit.....blurry. I do remember presenting my gift, though. Well, at least I know what mine was. It was the box that, when opened, reveals a three dimensional model of Galbatorix's castle.....at least what I had seen of it. And it included a little mini Galbatorix that walked through the halls in direct correspondence to the real one. I figured it would be helpful for the war to increase the odds of winning.

It was strange, though, that when I presented it, everyone seemed.....confused, or worried, or something. For everyone else, they clapped, but for me, they just whispered between each other. It was strange.

Then there was the dance by the two elves. They had a tattoo of a dragon, every scale inked in a different color. This occurrence, too, was a blur, though I remember a sharp, stabbing pain in my back, and three other screams aside from my own, a voice saying something about the pain being a gift, which, frankly, is one of those gifts that you try to smile at and then fail miserably at seeming happy because it truly is such an awful present. After that, nothing....

I woke up with my back throbbing painfully. I was in my room with Lili crouched protectively next to the bed. She was asleep, though she looked somehow......bigger. I stood and realized that I was still dressed from the celebration and wondered faintly how I got there, but then thought I probably passed out form alcohol consumption and someone brought me back here, so I let it go, instead grabbing a shirt and pants. As I removed the dress, I reached to pull off the purple gems, but they were stuck. I supposed that I had glued them a bit too well and they were just stuck really well, so I pulled a little harder and felt a sharp pain. The pain was not just on the skin, as you would ecpect if you had glued something to it and it threatened to rip off with whatever was glued to it, but rather deeper, deep enough that it felt like something was tugging on my spine, and it felt like fire as I finally freed it from my body.

I turned around so that I could see my back in the mirror, figuring it to be just a small cut. Instead, I saw, not just blood, but...was that? No. It couldn't be my spine, could it? But it was. The thing had been as deep as my spine. I must have really glued it well, or badly, depending on how you look at it. I muttered a healing spell to seal the cut, and watched in shock as, not skin, but another glittering purple gem healed in its place. It hurt like hell.

Also, the one that I had pulled off and set on a small table was now...gone, somehow. No, wait, there was a tiny pile of ash where it had been.

This was so strange. Why were the things growing back as though they were....oh, shit, like they were a part of me. That was the only way they could heal back. If they were a natural part of my body as much as skin was.

I quickly did a once over of myself to check that nothing else was wrong with me. As I made it to my face, I almost gasped.

That couldn't be me. It didn't look like me at all. The creature staring back at me was beautiful, incredible, and I could not see any of my former features, save the color of my hair and the shape of my eyes. Even the color was wrong. They were a striking purple, the color of Lili's scales.

I started hyperventilating. This was way too much. What the hell had that voice done to me? I was sooo going to find that person and kick their sorry asses.

Lili, as if sensing my mental breakdown, stirred, and I felt her consciousness more acutely than ever before.

_What is wrong?_

_What's wrong? What's freaking wrong?! Look at me! Have you seen me? I don't even look the same! I look completely like an elf! And my eyes! I loved my eyes! Why can't they stay blue? I like blue. Blue is pretty. Purple is just not a good eye color! And the stupid gems! Did you know that they are now me? As in, as much a part of me as my organs, or my hair, or my stupid purple eyes?! I don't want to be purple! It's not normal!_

_And what's wrong with being purple?_ Lili put her face directly in front of mine, daring me to insult her and her coloring again.

_Purple is....is.....I mean, it's all fine and great for you, but I am not supposed to be purple. People are not supposed to change colors and they should not look like a rainbow threw up on them!_

_You do not look like a rainbow threw up on you!......Only the purple part._

_Thank you. You make me feel a billion times better. What the hell happened to me?!_

_The spirit of the dragon race blessed you, as it blessed me with increased size-So feel blessed and be grateful! Right! Now!_

_Oh, easy for you to say, you don't have purple pieces of rock permanently protruding from your back!_

_If it makes you feel any better, the Spirit of my race blessed Faylen, Taylos, and Eragon as well._

_What'd it do?_

_It healed all of your scars, especially Eragon's, though I am unsure what else._

_Well, I am going to go check on Taylos and Faylen, and they better look really damn different._

With that, I threw on the shirt and pants and ran up the stairs, banging on Faylen's room. I walked in without waiting for an invitation, and saw that Taylos was there as well.

"Hey, Katari-" Taylos began, but I cut him off.

"What did that stupid Spirit thing do to you. You better have a damn good answer, like it turned you into a girl, or I am going to be seriously pissed"

They exchanged 'She's crazy' looks, and Faylen said, "Well, it made me more one with Aidor, who has grown.....considerably"

"Yeah, and I'm stronger and faster, and Zanethos is bigger too, but all my parts are still in the right place, sorry"

They both winced as I exploded, "Really?! You have got to be kidding me! You didn't sprout wings, or grow a second head? Cause it certainly did some weird stuff to me! And-what?"

Taylos had stopped listening and was staring intently at something.

"Katari, what's up with your eyes?"

"Change number one. And that's the smaller of the two"

"What's the bigger change then?" Faylen asked curiously.

"This", I turned around and pulled my shirt up enough to expose some of the crystals.

Both were slightly confused.

"Aren't those the gems you were wearing?" Taylos frowned.

"Yeah, why don't you take them off."

"Oh, I am not wearing anything. Do you see the problem?"

"No"

"Not really"

I rolled my eyes. "Let's put it simpler terms that even you geniuses can understand. I tried to pull one off. It left big cut. I said healing spell. It grew back. They are me. Understand?"

Their mouths dropped open and they both came over and touched them, testing to see if they could come off. I hissed because it hurt, so they stopped pulling, but they still felt the way they were fused to my body.

"We should go see Oromis." Taylos stated, still sounding as though in shock.

"Fine" I growled.

We all took off on our dragons, though Lili was still the largest, but theirs were large enough to fly on.


	45. Chapter 45

Oromis was sitting on a boulder in front of his hut when we arrived, eyes closed in deep concentration.

"Master?"

His eyes opened slowly at the sound of my voice. They looked deeply troubled.

"I was wondering.....about the blood-oath celebration? The spirit of the dragons, it........changed me....?" I trailed off.

He attempted a smile, "Yes, it changes us all, every time we see it. It sparks life within us, shows us things about ourselves we never knew existed."

"With all due respect, Oromis-elda, I don't think you understand. It didn't change me passively, simply by my seeing it. It actively changed me, well, all of us really, but me in particular. I mean, it made all of the dragons larger, large enough for Faylen and Taylos to fly on theirs, it made them stronger, faster, and more in tune with their dragons, and....well......it made me more elf-like. Almost completely elf-like. Except for my eyes. And those are bright purple now....if you didn't already notice.....and....um......well, you see-"

"It fused the gems to her so that they are a part of her. Fully. Like if she removes one and heals the cut, it grows back as skin would anywhere else." Taylos finished for me, flashing me a slight smile that said he had saved me from my speech problem at that moment.

Oromis' brow furrowed, "Interesting. I have never heard of anything like this. May I see them?"

I turned and lifted the back of my shirt a bit. He walked over, touched them a bit and studied them. Then, without warning, he wrenched one free. Just as quickly, he had Faylen do a healing spell and watched the gem grow back, also noting how the original one had decomposed almost immediately.

"This is incredibly interesting, Katari, but I am afraid I have a more pressing matter that forces me to put this issue aside for now," I turned back to face him, "Katari....is there anything you wish to tell me? Anything you have been hiding?"

I shook my head, confused.

"You remember your gift? How it also shows where in the castle Galbatorix is exactly at any given time?"

I nodded, still confused.

"Do you realize what that spell actually entails, why none of us have ever been able to perform it?"

I shook my head no.

"It requires that one be closely related to that person."

Realization dawned on me. Crap! They were going to find out! I wanted to be free of that association, they would only judge me for it. So, instead, I played dumb, "Master, I do not understand. Maybe my great-grandmother was his mother's mother as well? I do not know much of my parentage or childhood, and I was raised with no association to him whatsoever." Okay, at least part of that was true.

"No, Katari, it must be closer. A mother, a father, a brother, a sister, a _daughter_ perhaps?" He stared at me hard.

"My mother and father were not of this land" I said in the ancient language, for I believed it to be so, truly and completely.

"Katari, you cannot lie to me. How are you related to him?" He was becoming frustrated.

"I. Don't. Know." I gave up on being polite.

"Say it in the ancient language. Say that you do not know him and that he is not your true father, not the one who raised you, but the one who created you."

I almost started crying, and I let my head fall forward, "I.....I can't"

"Explain." he growled.

"Explain what? Why I lied? I really didn't know of him until I was sixteen. That was not a lie. I hate him and what he does. I do not see him as a father. And let me ask you this. If you were his brother, or his son, would you tell people? People who did not trust you yet? People you knew would stop trusting you? And more than that. Would you want to be associated with that despicable name? I certainly don't"

"You lied to me. You are tainted because you are his blood. He is evil, and his blood is evil."

"Have you ever seen me do anything, anything at all, that was remotely cruel? Evil is a choice. Think about that." I threw back.

"You know that I have no choice but to kill you now, as I should have killed Galbatorix, how I should have seen the evil in Morzan."

Tears streamed down my face as I shook my head in denial. How much a person could be hated based on their parentage. Someone who was loved and cared for, how soon those that cared for them could turn on them. It was terrible, and ridiculous. I wanted to run, to hide away forever, so that none of this would ever happen again, so that there would be no more pain.

Just as he drew the sword, and I was prepared to die for no fault of my own other than being born, existing, I felt sharp talons on my back, and when I opened my eyes, I saw everyone getting smaller, shouting things, spells, and i felt one take hold of me.

I tried to stay awake, but something thick and slimy was smothering me, something awful, and after a while, I gave up and allowed myself to succumb to the dark, and the thing that wanted me to sleep, to sleep and to never wake up.......

**Okay, it's not over, I promise, but you get nothing past that. Sorry!**


End file.
